fine lines bad crimes and trying times
by rangerdanger985
Summary: Steve Rogers has had a specific view on life even since he was a kid, Tony Stark never really knew what it was to live. coming from two vastly different sides of life, they meet in the most ironic way, when one of them is running from the police. an alternate universe where ones a college student the other is a thief. warning for mentioned abuse, not from Steve.
1. Chapter 1

Click click click. Click... Click.

You would think being a thief would mean you had money and back in the day it did, but in today's economy it took a little extra just to keep the bills paid.

Everyone was a thief nowadays.

Click... click. Click click click. Click.

Dirty fences, more sophisticated security, raising gas prices, it all contributed to thieves being stuck in an unending cycle of one last job, one final pay out, now it was rare for one to see 20 without a rap sheet or ending up dead.

Click. Click click. Click. Click. Ting!

"Yes"

You get distracted, you get caught? One of two things happen either you die, or you get arrested, he didn't want to brag but he'd never been caught by the police, and other than some scars the last time he checked he was still alive.

Not everyone he knew could say that.

The sudden sound of sirens made the thief jerk but he didn't think, on a job that got you caught, instead he grabbed his bag shoved what he came for into it then lunged out the nearest window with the sound of breaking glass and started running until he reached the street.

Once there he started to walk leisurely.

His friends words echoing in his head 'first rule when you're on the run is you don't run you walk' when he heard tires squeal he glanced back and saw the cop car had done a 180 and was coming after him making words from his other friend surface 'and if they see you? Run your ass off"

He cursed fowled slung his bag over his back and dove through the shrubs beside him that separated him from a park letting his long legs do their job.

He ran and ran taking corners a cop car couldn't at a high rate of speed all the way until he came to an intersection and someone rammed into him, or he should say, he rammed into them.

Either way they both started to tumble, he grabbed the person on instinct.

He was a thief but he didn't like people getting hurt when they didn't have to, unfortunately the move ended up with him pressing the person to a wall.

He could hear the person sputtering but he also head the approaching siren and with a glance back saw the lights reflecting in a shop window.

Knowing he couldn't outrun them, at least not now he turned his head and pressed his lips against the soft ones below him, after all PDA made people very uncomfortable and this was his last idea besides running which would end badly.

He heard the sirens now on top of him and heard tires squeal as the car whipped around the corner.

It slowed down almost directly behind him and he was about to bolt again muscles in his legs tightening when it sped up again.

He shifted his head just enough he could watch from the corner of his eye and he didn't move until the car turned the corner, then he huffed in relief.

Until he noticed his new problem.

He looked at the person he was still kissing and brown eyes stared back, a single brow raised in unimpressed question.

He blinked confused as to how he ended up in this situation and then the young man bit his bottom lip making him pull back twice as fast as he'd intended "ow" he complained covering his mouth with one hand.

The young man's arms crossed "don't act like you didn't deserve that, I'm still wondering if I should start screaming rape"

The thief whipped his lip then pressed his tongue to the blood "fire works better".

That brow rose up again as he watched the boy, large brown doe eyes and messy black hair, a goatee and a bloody lip stared right back at him even if it was a little more flustered looking than him.

He had to admit the boy was quite pretty.

Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptap

Hacking had become easier than ever.

Tap taptap tap tap click click.

Ever since large companies started to hire 'reformed' hackers to build their security system, idiots, they didn't know there was no such thing as a reformed hacker, they just got sneakier.

Taptaptap taptap click click tap.

No offence to the population at large, but how stupid could they get. I mean people, especially hackers, are smart,

Oh sure they program your security system, they probably even make it better than you were expecting, but they're still hackers, they always leave that one little chink in the armor.

A back door for their friends.

Taptaptaptaptap clickclick tap taptaptap! Taptap! Click!

"Yes!"

Every hacker did it and every system had one.

It was only a matter of finding them and getting through them.

And he was good at finding them.

He heard something down stairs crash and break and groaned to himself before turning off his computer systems, his victory celebration postponed for the time being.

He already knew how this night was going to end.

Once they were off he turned to his door "dum-e, you know the drill" the robot beeped and started toured the computer system as he left the room and went down to investigate.

"What's wrong old man?" he asked as he entered the living room his sneakers crunching over what use to be a rather expensive vase "lose your ass in cards again"

Watery drunk and angry eyes turned to him it really was just like every other night "when are you going to learn a little respect?" the mal slurred he looked to the side hands stuffed in his jeans.

"I don't know when are you going to stop gambling drinking and whoring away the company? No wonder mom left"

The blow was fast and painful and followed by another on the other side of his face which disoriented him causing him to tumble to the floor into the broken vase shards.

The blows weren't surprising and it wasn't the hardest he'd been hit by this man alone, but he could still taste blood on his lips.

"you don't know anything you little brat, sitting in your room all pay playing videogames I bought with my hard earned money, making fool of yourself and me at that crap collage, why don't you step into reality for a minute, see ow the world really is you spoiled little bastard"

He told himself the words didn't sting, that the pain only came from his bloody hands but it didn't work.

He could never quite get use to his father's bitterness.

With a deep sigh that made his chest ache he stood up and turned away "don't you walk away from me Anthony!" the man shouted at his back as he grabbed a messenger bag from the chair by the door he turned his head to raise a brow at his father "I should have gone with mom. I've been in the real world old man, maybe if you cold crawl out of that bottle for one minute you'd see that you bastard" he walked to the door and slammed it on his way out.

It was one of those cold California nights but he didn't care enough to return for his jacket, ripped jeans and an AC/DC shirt were more than enough and besides, he didn't feel like returning, not for a while at least.

He perked a brow when a cop car went flying down the street lights flashing and sirens blaring, it turned left so he went right and walked for he didn't know how long until something smashed into him and he found himself nearly slammed against the brick wall of some shop.

He looked up at a tall man wearing a hoodie "Wha what the- would you mind- could you just-" he was cut off from his stammering by the sound of a siren and rough lips slamming onto his own.

He froze and was about to fight back, maybe kick the guy in the balls when he noticed something, the man wasn't moving and the tension in his body told him he was waiting for something, but what?

The siren got closer and he could see the car turn onto the street and slowdown from the corner of his eye.

The man's tension skyrocketed almost like he was about to start running but then the car sped back up turning at the end of the street and he went loose with a large huff of a sigh, the one eye he had opened closing with relief.

He perked one brow just as the guy seemed to remember he was kissing someone and his eyes popped open almost comically, he could actually see the guy going uhh in his head so he made the choice for him and bit him on his bottom lip.

The man jumped back with a yelp and covered his mouth as he leaned more comfortably on the wall and crossed his arms "don't act like you didn't deserve that, I'm still wondering if I should scream rape" he watched the man whip his lip before pressing his tongue against the bloody spots it made his mouth go dry

"Fire works better" the brow he had risen that started to lower shot up again as he gave the still un named man a very unimpressed look.

And then he actually looked at him, a few strands of blonde hair poked out from under his hoodie and his eyes looked blue, he looked a few weeks late shaving if the beard on his jaw, all in all not really his type but still pretty to look at.

The man seemed to shake himself out of whatever he was thinking before raising a brow "what are you doing out here kid?"

He made a face at the man "I'm not a kid, and other than being accosted by you? I'm enjoying the fresh air" the man huffed and pushed down his hood reviling messy blonde hair that he had the urge to rake his fingers through and straighten "I'm not the only one with a bloody lip, get into a fight or break up with your girlfriend?"

His brows both drew up and he silently wondered to himself when exactly he had started talking to people who all but assaulted him "do I look like that kind of guy?"

The other man snorted "boyfriend" he corrected himself and Tony's face heated up "no idiot I meant the type that would get broken up with" he shook his head and looked away recrossing his arms "just had a little falling out with my dad, waiting for him to cool off and sober up"

"Oh" he said softly the man waited a moment before taking a step closer and extended his hand "Steve" he introduced.

He looked at the man's hand and then his face the streetlight reviling that his eyes were indeed blue then he reached out to take it "tony"


	2. Chapter 2

He watched the kid extend his hand to shake his own but he moved it at the last minute grabbing his wrist and turning his hand over.

His intention had been to check for needle marks because that was the story basically every drug addict used for pity and this kids hair looked like it hadn't seen a brush in his life and dark circles were under his eyes.

What he found instead made his stomach burn with anger.

There weren't any needle marks, but there were injuries on his palm that looked red and irritated.

Steve couldn't explain the sudden anger he felt at the boy's father for letting tony leave with obvious injuries like those, normally he just wouldn't give a shit, not openly, if someone saw you cared they'd take you for everything you had.

Alternatively, they would give you everything they were made of which was even worst, he knew.

He spoke from experience.

He glanced up at the boy's face that was slightly pinched with annoyance, but not fear "how'd you get these kid?" tony sighed at the use of kid again "I fell" Steve hummed unbelieving "into what? A window? There's still glass in your palm"

Tony pulled and Steve let him go "how'd you go from trying to make out with me to being my mother"

Steve rolled his eyes and chuckled "trust me kid that wasn't me trying to make out with you, public displays of affection make people uncomfortable, makes them over look you. If I was trying to make out with you, we wouldn't be having this conversation" he bent down grabbing his bag from where he'd dropped it and slung it around his back.

"Could you have much more of an ego, and stop calling me kid! I'm 22"

Steve rolled his eyes again "it's ego that's well deserved, kid" now he was just trying to aggravate him because it was kind of cute to watch.

The kid's hands fisted loosely at his hips he noticed both of them weren't curled so that meant both were injured "and now you're bragging"

He smirked and stepped closer taking notice how he was taller than the boy by at least a couple of inches "it's not bragging if it's true, what you want me to prove it to you?"

Tony glared at the asshole in front of him even as he felt his face start to burn he'd never really been in a situation like this before so he was playing it by ear, unfortunately it felt like he was deaf at the moment so he popped off the first thing he thought of.

"You sure you can make the grade blondie" damn.

The sudden deep slightly loud laugh made him almost flinch and he looked back at the man who reached out in the short distance between them and put his hand on top of his head, ruffling his hair "cute"

He made a sound of distaste and swatted at his arm unsuccessfully because Steve just grabbed his wrist and pulled bringing him outrageously close, close enough he felt the man's breath on his face.

And notice how warm his was, like, furnace in a desert warm.

It felt kind of nice.

The hand that had been on his head moved to his neck and he was sure his eyes were nearly bugging out of his head Steve was still smirking "think you can avoid making me bleed this time?"

He opened his mouth to answer and Steve took his chance covering Tony's mouth with his own.

His lips were slightly dry but the soft pressure felt amazingly good and Steve took advantage of his open mouth pressing his tongue inside weary of Tony's teeth lest he decide to bite him again.

Tony had no intentions of doing that a pang of regret hitting him as he tasted the copper from Steve's lips, the moan that crept from his throat wasn't a conscious sound but he felt Steve smirking all the same before the man tilted his head to further deepen the kiss.

As he did tony noticed he tasted like apples, over laid slightly by alcohol and cigarettes, some strange scent he couldn't identify clinging to the man's skin along with the smell of cordite.

Before his brain shut down he had a frightening thought that it was from a gun.

He felt Steve step closer his hands sliding down Tony's sides to stop at his hips, tony had just a moment to feel the man's hands tighten on him before he was being lifted and shoved back against a wall.

It was like just a few moments ago accept now instead of having his feet on the ground tony had his legs wrapped around Steve's hips arms thrown around his neck for balance.

Tony cursed the fact that his hands were injured because he would have loved to grab a hand full of that blonde hair to see if it was as soft as it looked.

Steve's beard scraped against his skin and he couldn't name the feeling it gave him, he just knew it felt delicious and if the man continued he was going to have a bigger problem than the glass in his hand.

His eyes, that he hadn't even realized he closed, shot wide open when Steve moved his hips pressing forward and down between Tony's spread thighs in a grinding motion that made Tony's hands clench in the material of his hoodie.

Absently he thought how this so wasn't fair, he also wondered how he'd talked his way into having this rather good looking man grind against and make out with him on a wall.

In public no less.

His old man must really be proud now.

When Steve pulled away it was with a final bite to Tony's bottom lip that he thought was partly in retaliation for earlier.

He didn't move very far away, still holding tony off the ground and pressed against the wall.

He actually couldn't move very far because Tony's arms were still around his neck, he could hear the smirk in the man's voice when he spoke "you were saying something about making the grade? Tell me did I pass?"

Tony grumbled, "No, you cheated" Steve let out a warm sounding chuckle "I never turn down an advantage kid"

With another grumble tony leaned forward again to nip Steve's lip, softer than the first time "not a kid, and can we take this somewhere else? That shop has security cameras"

Steve glanced over his shoulder at the pawn shop behind them across the street and smirked a little "sure, think you can walk?" tony made a face and punched his shoulder

Despite the punch Steve laughed and set tony down on his feet deliberately slow so Tony's body slide against his in a way that should be illegal.

In the end tony did have to take a moment to gain his bearings, when Steve turned away he also pushed down a noticeable problem making it stay down with force of will alone.

Tony was nothing if not stubborn.

Steve smirked to himself as he lead the young man down the street, cheated, sure, that's what he did.

Didn't change the fact that he'd caught tony pushing down his rather apparent hard on when he turned away.

He was sure the kid could see his amusement but he honestly didn't give a shit, besides tony was too distracted calming himself down, he knew the boy would need a minute, Steve didn't want to brag or anything but more than once he'd had someone tell him that he was the best lay they'd ever had.

They had particularly liked his mouth and don't get him started on his blow jobs.

Ok maybe he was bragging to himself.

But who cared? He was good in bed; it was one of his redeeming qualities.

Glancing to the side he noticed tony was looking at him probably confused by his expression but he just nodded to the side "follow me" he said and started walking.

Tony kept pace with him being stubbornly silent as they walked either lost in thought or brooding about the fact Steve had 'cheated' in making out with him, just how could you cheat in something like that? Swear to god the kid was just miffed because Steve gave him a hard on.

Honestly it was the kids own fault for taunting him, and it wasn't like he'd been unaffected either, after all it obviously wasn't the first time the kid had made out with someone.

That thought lead Steve to thinking just what the kid would be like on his knees but that wasn't helping the pressure in his crotch so he stopped thinking it.

Maybe he stored the thought for when they were behind closed doors, kid had a point with cameras then again Steve wasn't really a big 'sex in public places' fan.

That was always Bucky's thing; then again his best friend since childhood really didn't give a shit.

Shaking himself mentally he noticed he'd almost walked passed the alley he was looking for.

When tony noticed him walking into a mostly shadow covered alley he made a face Steve couldn't almost hear the young man thinking 'this is not what I was talking about, Jackass'

"Just need to grab something," he said as he all but disappeared, he heard tony mutter but ignored him to instead pull the tarp off his motorcycle.

The best thing he ever stole.

He pushed it out of the alley and Tony's brows rose; apparently the boy really hadn't realized Steve wasn't going to walk back to his apartment.

Steve rolled his eyes before he could help it, would he really be running from the cops with a suspicious bag over his shoulder if he could afford an apartment anywhere around the shopping district?

"Well? You gonna keep staring or are you going to get on? I mean you can walk if you'd prefer but my apartments not exactly close by" tony shook his head clearing it before sliding on behind him, obviously trying not to crowd him.

Well, he thought. That just wouldn't do would it.

Steve kicked his bike into life and settled into the seat, felt the bike rumbling below him in a way that always made him smile, then he reached back with his right hand and yanked the young man forward.

He made a slight yelping sound as he was pulled forward and Steve glanced over his shoulder with a smirk as he saw Tony's face had heated up a little into a cute rosy color "hang on" he told the young man who ducked his head.

Steve felt him press his face between his shoulder blades his arms moving around Steve's waist and his thighs cradling Steve's apparently he got the memo about sitting closer.

Score that as a win.

With a single rev Steve spit rock from the back tire as he peeled off from the alley entrance and onto the road, immediately pushing the bike as fast as quick as possible.

Maybe it was because he wanted to get home and get the young man naked; maybe it was more because he enjoyed the way tony let out a gasp and clutched to him tighter every part of his body pressing against Steve's.

Maybe with was more latter than the former, but who cared? He enjoyed it.

And apparently so did tony from the way he shifted just enough to see over Steve's shoulder and feel the wind on his face.

The way he pressed his hands against Steve's middle wasn't so bad either.


	3. Chapter 3

Normally it was a 20 minute drive to his apartment but Steve liked the way tony held onto him so he might have gone a little faster than strictly necessary, anyway the drive took half the time is what he was getting at.

When they arrived he pulled his bike into its normal spot beside the wall separating his building from the street and shut it off before glancing back at tony.

The young man had his face pressed against Steve's back and held tight enough around his waist it was nearly suffocation.

It also felt nice, knowing the young man had that much strength to him.

He reached back with one hand and poked at his head of now wild dark brown hair and tony glanced at him "you going to let go kid" the sudden blush that spread up his face was cute and he couldn't hold in his smirk and risen brow.

"M'not a kid" he muttered and slowly removed his arms from Steve's waist.

Tony's legs were slightly wobbly but Steve didn't offer him help in standing, just lead the way to his apartment on the top floor of a four story building with a non-working elevator.

And people asked him where he got his cardio.

By the time they reached his apartment tony was glaring at his back and huffing slightly and Steve found that cute to for some reason.

As he unlocked his door he thought on the strange emotions he was having, usually he didn't care this much about a quick fuck, sadly this wasn't the first time he'd used someone to get out of being busted on the street, and usually they all ended the same way.

He'd go to their place fuck them, or on the slimmer occasions get fucked by them, then come home shower and go to bed fully satisfied with his night and his haul.

He'd never brought someone to his place before, at least not that he could remember.

Was it sad? Maybe. Was it shallow? Extremely so but that was what he liked about it.

No deep emotional ties he'd have to cut away should he ever be forced to make a run for it.

No one to hurt should one of his jobs go bad and the inevitable finally catch up with him, a slightly sad and lonely life aside from his friends but he'd never thought of it like that before.

What was with this kid, he'd known him for a couple of hours at the most, and he was reevaluating his life choices?

Shaking his head he pushed open his door and led the kid inside "welcome to cassa'de'Steve kid, make yourself at home while I get the first aid shit for your hands"

He heard a mutter and couldn't help glancing back at tony; the young man was looking around almost in wonder.

Steve had to admit, his place wasn't that bad, he got it for cheap and it was above par for a thief but it was home at least as close as he got to home.

Clearing his head he dropped his haul still in its bag onto the table on the way to the bathroom, he knew more than likely the kid was going to snoop but what the hell could he find other than some old take out boxes?

He had nothing to hide, hell if the kid didn't already know he was a thief the bags rattle would have given it away.

That and there were a few little things, nick knacks he liked from certain hauls that he kept, maybe as mementos, maybe because they looked cool he didn't know.

Pulling the first aid box from under the sink he looked in the mirror and stared at himself for a moment.

First thing he noticed was he probably needed to shave now that the job was over, maybe get a haircut, he scratched his chin under the beard then sighed and pushed that annoying strand of hair out of his face again.

Really needed a haircut.

When Steve opened the door on the top floor of a better on the inside than out building tony expected a regular apartment.

He wasn't expecting a flat like this.

Steve said something he didn't catch and he muttered slightly still looking around, it was one of those apartments with the mostly open floor plan, the walls were a pale color and the living room dining room and kitchen were merged into one room.

There were some partial walls that, tony guessed, had to be support walls, but other than that and the bathroom being closed off, it was an almost completely open floor plan.

A half wall separated the rest of the apartment from the bedroom, not quite visible from where he was standing but tony still thought the apartment was impressive.

He walked around looking at the mantle a few little nick knacks were on it, there was one a Faberge egg with rubies sapphires and diamonds, the diamonds making a star in the center of a wide blue area on the top.

Beside it was a dragon figurine perched atop a mound looking down with its mouth open.

Its eyes were red gems, maybe rubies.

This guy was either secretly rich or stole the shit.

When tony saw yet another small nick knack he decided, he defiantly stole the shit.

Tony was surprising ok with it, even if, thinking of what caused them to meet, that meant he'd aided a criminal in evading the cops.

Moving away from the mantle he looked at some photos on the wall, well not actual photos, they were drawings.

Very good, very detailed drawings.

One of them was a nude woman covered only with a sheet, some modal with curly dark hair and pouty lips.

Another was a nude man, again covered with only a sheet his hair was dark and reached passed his shoulders and he had a play boys grin on his face, the amount of detail paid to the muscles and lines of his body was amazing.

The most defining feature of the figure was the fact that his left arm was missing at the shoulder, not missing as in the sketch wasn't finished, missing as in, well, missing.

Details were paid to the scars that stretched over part of the shoulder and chest.

Looking at the drawing he saw other portraits but none quite as detailed.

Tony couldn't help wondering if Steve drew them.

Shaking his head he walked toured the couch and got lost in his thoughts as he slumped into the cushions sinking in because the old couch was actually comfortable.

He leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling through mostly closed eyes just thinking about pointless things.

Also wondering about random things, like his bots and his AI project.

He was distracted enough he didn't notice Steve walking over until the man nudged him "you're not dead are you? Cause that would put a damper on things"

Tony glanced at the man who had a brow raised then lifted his head "just thinking"

"well I think the neighbors could hear you" he rolled his eyes then scratched his cheek "We doing this or not?" he saw the man roll his eyes hard enough he wondered if they'd get stuck as he sat on the coffee table.

He looked more amused than anything else, even if tony wanted to annoy him "not until your hands are taken care of, you still have glass in your palms"

"My hands are fine"

Steve gave him a very unimpressed look "let me put it to you like this kid" Tony made a face that he ignored "I'm not going to fuck you, when you can't even use your hands. Because that be just cruel for one, and second because I want the reason you can't use your hands to be because there tied above your head"

Steve reached out and rubbed his head "not because you're being too stubborn to let me deal with it, besides you just got blood on your goatee"

Tony felt his face was warm, warmer than he'd ever felt it before.

For once he didn't have a comeback so instead he just held out his hands palm up.

So what if his jeans were suddenly a little tight.


	4. Chapter 4

Steve barely held in a laugh at the blush that tony tried to hide by keeping his head ducked and stretching out his hands.

Any humor Steve might have felt was quickly destroyed by the look of his palms, the dried blood made it hard to tell just how bad they were but he was pretty sure he didn't need stitches.

Ok he hoped the boy wouldn't need stitches.

Steve took the right hand and gently pulled it closer, it was still bleeding, and he was pretty sure it was because of the dark colored glass jammed into the injury.

He winced in sympathy and glanced at the young man who was stubbornly, thankfully, not watching what he was doing.

Thankfully, because this was going to hurt enough without him watching.

Steve grabbed a pair of industrial tweezers that he sometimes wished he didn't have to own and looked to see the best angle for pulling it out.

Seeing there was no best way he voted on fast as possible.

Therefore, in a single smooth motion he tightened his grip on Tony's hand latched the tweezers onto the glass and yanked.

Tony jerked and shouted "fuck" in surprised pain, Steve pressed a cloth into his hand and closed his hand around it then held up the shard "recognize this?"

The young man was clutching his fist tight and close to his chest and glared at him then at the piece on the end of the tweezers "it's not glass its ceramic, fucking vase wasn't worth what the old man paid for it"

He dissolved to muttering and Steve just held out his hand for the other one.

Tony leered at him for a moment then finally held out his hand cautious this time watching him with eagle eyes, Steve rolled his eyes and looked, this one wasn't nearly as bad nothing was in the cuts and though they had bled they weren't deep.

He used a second rag to clean the blood away then an antibacterial wipe, Tony's fingers twitched at the sting but he didn't pull away until after Steve secured the bandage around his hand being careful to keep it tight enough to stop any bleeding but loose enough so it didn't cut off circulation.

That was always the hard part.

Steve didn't think he'd be so relieved when he saw Tony's other hand the one clutching the rag wasn't as bad as it first looked, there were three deep cuts but just barely short of needing stiches deep.

The rest were just scratches but nothing was that serious.

He swept the bandage wrappers and bloody cloths into the trash can he'd brought with him, he knew getting blood out of wash cloths was nearly impossible and people tended to look at you funny when you brought bloody towels and washcloths to the wash room the third week in a row.

When he looked back at tony from throwing out the trash he saw the young man rubbing his hands absently, the bandages white and going from wrist to the first joint of each finger.

It looked like he was about to go boxing.

"Kid" the young man looked up with a humming sound and he smirked "just thinking right?" the boys face grew slightly darker and Steve couldn't help smirking slightly "kind of, can't think of why you'd give a shit about this, I mean it's not your problem why would you care?"

Steve paused for a moment then sighed and rubbed the back of his head "your old man must have messed you up pretty bad. Listen I might be a thief but I'm not cruel , when I sleep with someone I don't want them to be in pain, kind of takes away from it ya know"

Tony grumbled something but stopped when Steve reached out and pulled him surprisingly gently to his feet and he looked up.

Steve noticed the young man's eyes were large and chocolate brown, tiny flicks of bronze scattered through the iris, and why he noticed that he had no idea, but it was pretty.

His hand itched for a piece of charcoal almost as much as it itched to get him naked and under him.

Sooner, rather than later.

Raising a brow in silent question he waited for an answer.

There was one thing tony noticed rather fast around Steve, he couldn't concentrate, the man was distracting but also comforting, he gave a shit when his own parental figure had all but caused his injuries.

When Steve pulled him to his feet he didn't pull him close just let him stand a few inches away lightly grasping his bandages hand.

His grip was soft as not to further injury tony and the look in his eyes.

It was almost tender.

He wasn't use to that.

Looking at the man he saw his eyes were a bright shade of blue, almost like sapphire's and just when tony started describing people's eyes as precious gems was unknown to him but he liked them.

He barely resisted blurting out that Steve had pretty eyes but he didn't really feel like dying of embarrassment quite yet.

When the thief rose a brow tony knew he was waiting for something, both asking to continue what they had started against that building and giving tony a chance to walk away, before it was too late.

Honestly he thought about it, after all what were the chances of running into the thief again?

Nevertheless, as that thought crossed his mind Tony reached out with his free hand placed it on the back of Steve's neck and rising up on his toes pulled the man closer until he could feel his breath on his face.

After all it's like he always said, sometime you have to run before you can walk.

Of course he couldn't say he'd ever run this particular direction before.


	5. Chapter 5

Steve's lips quirked slightly at the young man's actions and closed the final inch of distance with ease.

He bent down slightly so tony didn't have to reach so far and snaked his arm around the smaller man's waist hand slipping just under his shirt.

Tony's lips opened with ease beneath his own allowing Steve to taste him; in a small distant part of himself he took note of how the young man tasted like coffee with the distant touch of energy drinks.

When their tongues met tony made a breathy sound leaning into Steve a little more, his other hand going to join his first around Steve's neck.

That was fine by Steve as he dropped his other arm and looped it under the young man's ass lifting him in a single powerful show of strength to carry him towards his room.

Never breaking the kiss or looking where he was going.

Of course he stopped on the way to press the young man's back against the half wall separating his room from the rest of the apartment.

Tony made another sound when his back collided with the solid wall but he didn't focus on it, more interested in the way Steve's lips felt against his own; the battle for dominance that was taking place that tony knew he had no chance of winning.

Not that he wasn't going to try his damnedest or that he wouldn't cheat.

He moved one hand from where his arms wrapped around the older man's neck and just barely traced his fingers over the back of Steve's neck before sliding his fingers into the dark blonde hair at his nape.

It caused a very pleasant reaction in his opinion.

Steve's grip on him tightened and his muscles coiled a little, he also let out a sound tony couldn't identify but stopped fighting long enough for him to take dominance of the kiss.

He again tasted the traces of alcohol and cigarettes and there was a cool taste to him as well, almost like mint.

Tony didn't have long to think on the tastes as the man shifted away to bury his face on his neck nibbling and biting at the skin and making him groan.

Steve thought it was a nice sound.

With the man this close tony noticed those smells again, one of them was the cordite that he still didn't want to think about too much, and the second one was fainter, just barely noticeable as tony bent his head back against the wall to expose his throat.

Being closer he could tell it was partly pine trees and partly some sweet smell almost like licorice.

He had no idea what that meant but Steve was doing his best to make him mindless and his brain was snatching up whatever bits of information it could.

Of course when he bit down on the area below his collar bones almost hard enough to break the skin tony would admit anything it might have picked up was quickly wiped away.

Deciding to think when he didn't have a rather sexy criminal pinning him against the wall for all intents and purposes of fucking him, he refocused on the task in front of him just in time to feel Steve clutching the material of his Metallica t-shirt.

Using the grip he still had on the man's hair tony pulled until Steve detached from his neck to press their mouths together again.

Of course at the same time he pressed tony further into the wall and rotated his hips.

Steve smirked at the moan the young man let out when he started grinding against him.

In the back of his mind Steve couldn't help thinking 'damn this kid it responsive' when he felt something hard poking against his stomach.

Which brought up a thought he hadn't even considered, after all tony didn't act innocent.

Then again it was entirely possible he'd slept with countless women but Steve knew it was a big difference between sleeping with a woman and sleeping with a man.

No matter what your numbers are with ladies it never prepared you for the first time a guy plowed you into next week.

He knew that for damn sure.

Thinking all this he considered asking but then again the kid, and he really needed to stop thinking of him like that or else he's start feeling like an old pervert, was surprisingly un-freaked so maybe he'd just let it ride and see if the Ki- if tony, started to tense up.

Of course he wouldn't be finding anything out if he didn't get the young man naked.

Using the hold he had on Tony's shirt he started to lift it, tony seemed to understand because he shifted just far enough from the wall to make it easier to remove it.

Breaking away for just a moment Steve lifted the old rock band shirt over Tony's head before diving back in tossing the material carelessly behind him.

Tony's arms fell back over his shoulders and Steve let his hands glide over his chest, he felt the young man didn't have much clearly defined muscle so he felt soft under the light pressure of his hands.

Of course he could still feel the strength he had especially when the young man grabbed a hand full of hair to yank his head back so he exposed his own throat.

Steve never really had much of a thing for hair pulling before, at least not being on the receiving end of it.

But then again he also never brought people to his apartment so there was a first for everything.

He just so happened to be discovering quite a few of them and he didn't even have the kid, damn it, the young man, naked yet.

Noticing that Tony's hands on his back had hiked up his shirt he stepped back from the wall and turned toured his bed as tony started nibbling at the hollow of his throat.

Tony had just found a nice place on Steve's throat that made the older man's hands tighten when suddenly he was in open air.

He inhaled sharply in that one moment of free fall before he landed on his back on something soft.

Sitting up tony looked down at the dark bedspread under his hands then looked up in time to watch Steve yank off his shirt.

He openly admitted that he stared but that man's chest was stair worthy.

Well defined abs and pecks that actually deserved the name man boobs, a smattering of dark hair made an almost 'T' pattern growing lighter as it descended to the waist of his pants.

Tony was kind of jealous of Steve's chest hair since he himself couldn't grow any.

Then again he quickly forgot that when he also unbuttoned his pants and pushed them down stepping out of them and kicking them away without really looking, instead choosing to give tony a rather lewd smirk that made tony shiver and blush, he hated blushing.

But then again the man now only wore a pair of dark blue briefs that did nothing to hide his interest.

It was weird tony thought absently, he'd been around men in briefs before, hell he'd nearly walked in on his best friend last time he was over after one of his experiments went wrong and left him covered in gooey green shit.

But that was his science loving buddy and he didn't have nearly as much delicious looking muscle, and just where the hell were these thoughts coming from?

Slowly Steve approached the edge of the bed his steps just as quiet barefoot as when he was wearing those black boots.

He grabbed Tony's ankles and pulled him toured the edge of the bed and tony let him, pushing himself up on his arms once his legs hung over the edge.

Steve bent forward and down back bowing as he did to lay his lips against Tony's again.

Taking advantage of the expanse of skin in front of him tony took a chance and lifted his hands to Steve's stomach feeling the soft brush of dark hair against his palms growing thicker as he glided them up.

He'd openly admit to tweaking one of Steve's nipples for curiosity's sake just to see how the man would react.

He was thrilled when the man's body jerked slightly.

Feeling suddenly brave tony slid one hand up over the man's shoulders to keep his balance and slid the other down fingertips barely trailing against the man's hard flesh, following the treasure tail down to his briefs.

Pausing for a moment he took a mental breath still in the middle of a very dirty kiss and turned his hand.

Steve jerked harder sucking in a breath when something pressed against his dick through his briefs and groaned softly when the hand started rubbing up and down.

Pulling away from the young man just enough to look at him Steve saw Tony's face was red with a blush but his eyes glimmered

"Ya'lil shit" Steve drawled before diving in to attack his neck sucking at his pulse then sinking his teeth into the skin between his collarbones.

He noticed the young man was still wearing his jeans and thought absently that that just wasn't right.

Not stopping tony from stroking him through his briefs he lowered his hands and started to unfasten his jeans then moved one of his hands to the boys back to help lean him back down on the bed.

Tony pulled his hand away making a breathy sound when then larger man started leaning down pressing his back to the bed.

He understood why when Steve's hands dropped down to his waist and started tugging at his jeans.

Lifting his hips he pulled the man into another kiss tongues tangling and breath mingling until Steve pulled away completely.

Confused he pushed himself up on his elbows just in time to see the man kneel to finish pulling off Tony's jeans putting him at eye level with Tony's now aching hard on.

Through the fog of his brain he noticed that the man had pulled both his pants and briefs down at the same time.

Steve's eyes flicked up toured him and he was confused by his expression even if that lewd smirk was back, he didn't know what the man was thinking until Steve pulled Tony's legs up over his shoulders and scooted closer.

He could feel the man's warm breath ghosting over sensitive flesh just a moment before he opened his mouth and- hello!

Tony's head fell back and his eyes snapped shut as the man's warm mouth started lipping at the head of his cock.

He'd been on the receiving end of a blowjob before, his last girlfriend had been particularly fond of them, but honestly the woman had no fucking idea what she'd been doing.

Also having his dick sucked by another man? Not as bad as he thought it'd be.

And that made him realize he'd thought about this before.

Glancing up Steve saw the young man's face was flushed but also slightly scrunched like he was thinking something.

That just wouldn't do, thinking that tony needed to, well, stop thinking he threw some precaution to the wind and sank down further on his not unimpressive dick, the bo- young man! Had to be at least 7in and he wasn't even fully hard yet.

Of course that didn't last long as he started to bob his head and press his tongue against the vein on the underside.

The moan the boy let out was half surprised and half pleasurable just like Steve liked it to be.

Honestly Steve didn't know quite why he was doing this, he'd never been a fan of being on the giving side of a blow job, guys always bucked their hips shoving themselves down his throat before he was ready for it.

Not that he didn't enjoy the heavy taste of a man on his tongue or that he wasn't good at it, again some of his one-nighters said his mouth was better than anyone they'd met, but he didn't enjoy choking, he had to deal with that too much as a kid.

But the way this young man was acting, holding his hips stiff like he was afraid to move, that just wouldn't work.

Moving one of his hands under the young man's hips he gave it a slight squeeze before pulling off his dick, he paused to lave the head for a moment then moved down while lifting him up a little to suck at his balls.

Tony gave a soft whine when the man pulled off his dick but yelped when he moved down, it caused his legs to tighten behind his back pulling Steve closer, he absently felt the man smirk against his skin before he pulled away.

A sharp bite to the inside of his left thigh made him yelp and jolt, legs tightening again his ankles crossing on Steve's back.

Tony's reaction to his bite made him chuckle and sooth it with his tongue, he knew it would leave a bruise but he didn't honestly give a shit.

And it got a reaction out of tony so that was really all he cared about.

Moving his hands to support Tony's legs and push them apart just a little more he raised his head and looked back at the young man, his lack of movement causing tony to look up, his eyes were slightly dilated.

Not nearly enough for Steve's liking.

So while keeping eye contact with the young man he bent his neck and opened his mouth.

He lowered his head, slowly tracing every vein with his tongue as he did so until he felt the head hit the back of his throat.

Tony's hands curled into the bed sheets as Steve dropped lower, he couldn't take his eyes off the man as his cheeks hollowed, lips shiny with spit, he was fighting to keep his hips still especially when he felt his dick hit the back of Steve's throat.

But just a moment after Steve's body twitched like he was fighting his gag reflex, he took more.

Tony's hands shot up from the bed to tangle with blonde strands as he slid entirely into the man's mouth, not so much guiding as trying to ground himself.

His hips shuddered slightly and Steve's hands latched onto them to keep him still, having to pull back to take a breath.

But Steve's hands didn't stop Tony's legs from flexing and shifting around.

The pleasure was humming though his body steadily now, enough so that he couldn't think, it was making his body go lax at the same time it made specific muscles coil tighter.

He was high enough he didn't feel one of Steve's hands move away from his hip but could you really blame him?

Steve could feel his own dick throbbing as he reached for the lube that was shoved under his mattress, don't ask why it was there his memory was fuzzy, without thinking or looking he flipped it open and slicked his fingers.

Trusting the young man to be distracted by his skills, and yes he was patting himself on the back, he rose his hand and teased the area around his hole with the pad of his thumb, it shifted clenching along with his legs for a moment before Steve gave another suck and he was distracted again.

He resisted smirking only because it would make him choke and pressed his index against the ring of muscle.

And he realized as tony gasped, that he was tight, almost too much so.

Pulling completely away he wiped his mouth and looked at tony who released his grip on Steve's hair.

His eyes were lidded and foggy, pupils blows wide, skin dark and brow furrowed in confusion.

"shit kid your tight" his voice was rough, almost like he'd had a dick down his throat but he saw the reaction it earned as Tony shivered, muscles fluttering slightly around his finger.

The young man took a breath possibly trying to make his brain work again before he opened his mouth to reply "what do you expect for someone that's never been fucked"

Steve's brows rose is surprise but his dick gave a very harsh almost painful throb, why the hell was that so hot?

Tony watched Steve's face shift from surprise into a smirk then watched him stand pulling his finger away and crawled over tony, making him scoot further up on the bed before stopping propped up above him and pinning him in with his arms.

Steve lowered himself until he was all but pinning tony with his body "once I'm finished" he started lowering his face to scratch his beard against Tony's cheek "you won't want to be fucked by anyone else"

He shivered at the promise and the man's breathe blowing warm over his ear, his entire body going warm before their lips crashed together.

He could taste the salty tang of his precum on Steve's tongue but ignored it as they battled for dominance, a fight he'd never admit to, this time, willingly losing before the man pulled away and sat on his knees between Tony's legs.

Giving the young man another smirk, this one slightly reassuring, he reached down with his right hand and took hold of his dick giving a single slow stroke before lowering his right hand still slick with lube, back to his ass.

This time he had a reason to watch tony other than the fact that it was hot to see how he reacted to certain stimulations.

Tony didn't want to admit how much trust he was suddenly giving to a man he didn't even know, so instead he let his head fall back onto the blankets as Steve started to stoke his dick.

Tony stiffened for just a moment when he felt the man circling his hole, no longer as high on pleasure as he had been but he made himself relax.

Steve had bandaged his hands and done so almost gently, he'd said that he wasn't cruel and while he could be lying, because tony knew he was a criminal, he was pretty positive he could trust the man in this.

Tony might not have wanted Steve to see but he did, he could read the sudden trust in the way he didn't tense up immediately and the way, when he did, he made himself relax.

He had no idea why it had his ego purring.

Slowly he slid the first finger inside of tony, pressing forward any time the tight heat started to loosen until it was all the way inside.

Waiting for a moment he continued to stroke Tony's dick rubbing his thumb over the head on every down stroke and smearing the precum that was starting to gather.

He waited until he saw Tony's face started to relax to pull his finger out and slip in back in.

Tony's lips were just starting to slacken when he pulled out, placed more lube onto his fingers, and then pressed two against him.

He clenched and made a slightly pained sound but relaxed as Steve hushed him.

As Steve continued Tony couldn't help his groan, the feeling of being spread apart was new and strange, a burn that started as a small blip of pain if he didn't relax, wasn't entirely unpleasant and the slick slide against sensitive flesh, that felt better than he was expecting.

A new pleasure he'd never felt before starting to tingle in his abdomen.

It was just starting to feel good when Steve hit something that made his vision go white and made him cry out.

He heard a chuckle as he tried to regain some form of control "shit your responsive kid"

"Not a kid" he panted out squinting at the man who smirked back at him, tony didn't like the look in Steve's eyes.

Steve saw the moment tony started to truly relax; who knew one small flick to his prostate would have such a positive effect.

Not that it was enough, Steve wanted the younger man so blissed out that he couldn't even remember his own name, he had made a promise after all.

It was also the best and fastest way to get tony to loosen up so they could move on to the real fun.

After all the prep was nice but his dick was aching and if he took too much longer he was pretty sure it would explode.

And not in the fun way.

So with one thing in mind he started rubbing the pads of the fingers inside tony against that perfect little cluster of nerves.

The sounds the young man made were amazing.

Breathy moans and half whimpers that might have been attempts at words, pulling out he slowly started to slide in a third when the young man shouted.

For a moment Steve thought he'd gone to fast until he saw the way Tony's body was stiff face almost bright red and jaw clenched in pleasure.

It only took him stroking Tony's dick twice more before he was suddenly coming on his stomach and over Steve's hand and damn that was hot to watch, after a moment he went slack gasping quietly, Steve waited for his muscles to stop spasming before wiggling his fingers experimentally.

Tony let out a pitiful sounding whine but he'd gone loose, Steve didn't even need to stretch him for his fingers to fit.

Just to be safe he added a forth but other than a whine from overstimulation tony barely reacted.

Of course now he had a different problem, refectory time was called refectory hell for a reason.

Through the white noise inhabiting his skull tony though he'd needed that, it felt amazing and left him feeling tingly as he slowly started to regain himself, he whined when Steve stretched him a little more but other than that just tried to catch his breath.

When the man stopped moving pulling his hands away tony exerted a large amount of effort to raise himself up on his elbows enough to look at the man between his legs and shit that was hot.

Steve had sat back and was slowly stroking himself, eyes dark as he watched tony.

His dick was about 9ins and absently tony wanted to roll his eyes, not only was the man taller than him but he was bigger to.

When he realized Steve was stroking himself with the hand covered in Tony's release he couldn't hold back his shiver.

Seeing the young man shiver slightly while watching him Steve felt his control snap and leaned over him to steal a kiss that was more tongue and teeth than anything else.

"Turn over" he instructed while sitting back just enough to get out of the way, tony made a sound of complaint before doing as he was asked, turning onto his stomach, Steve grabbed Tony's hips and lifted him onto his knees, teasing at his twitching hole for a moment before reaching for the lube and a condom.

He tore it open with his teeth and had to take a breath as he put it on before using a liberal amount of lube.

Sitting up on his knees he placed one hand on Tony's hip and guided himself with the other.

Felling the gentle press of something against his hole tony went stiff for a moment before making himself relax, opening his legs just a little further to give Steve more room.

He made a sound of discomfort at the first slow but insistent push that turned into pain when he felt the burn.

Hearing the pained sound just as he'd slipped in about an inch he moved his free hand to Tony's back to sooth him "easy" he said and started to press in further stopping at the next sound of pain the boy made.

"breath Tony, push back if you think it'll help" Tony made a slight sound when Steve said his name but did as instructed taking a breath to try and disperse some of the discomfort, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be but it still wasn't pleasant.

He pressed back just as Steve pushed forward and the man slid in another couple inches before tony clenched up and Steve made a strained sound of his own "oh kid, don't clench"

Tony wrinkled his nose and glanced over his shoulder at the man "easier said than done, you try having someone's dick up your ass, and don't call me kid!"

Steve chuckled slightly the vibration of the sound making tony suppress a shiver "I have, it just takes some getting used to"

The mental image those words gave tony had his eyes going wide and his mouth gapping slightly the shock also made him relax enough for Steve to slip the rest of the way in.

He couldn't hold in his guttural moan when he was finally surrounded by that warm wet tightness, if he knew telling tony he'd bottomed before was all it took to get him to relax he'd have done it sooner.

Taking a moment to gain back his control Steve let his head fall to Tony's back taking a couple of deep breaths before pressing one hand into the bed to push himself up.

Tony was gasping to himself, the sudden feeling of being full was unfamiliar and strange but it also felt really good, his muscles burned in the most delicious way and he was hard again.

"Tell me if it's too much" tony heard him say and his brows furrowed if what was to- oh, o-oh god.

Steve started thrusting shallowly moving just a little further each time he pulled back.

He gave a short moan when Steve bottomed out and rotated his hips before pulling back again, Tony's hands clenched in the sheets and he bit his bottom lip as he started to move faster, he could keep himself from giving an experimental rock of his hips.

Steve groaned when tony moved his hips and bent forward resting his hand on the bed beside Tony's head "do that again" he rumbled before lowering his head and sucking a bruise into the back of his shoulder.

He started to tilt his hips and push back on Steve's every down thrust and the sound of skin hitting skin grew loud in the otherwise still air.

Growing faster and harder until the bed shook and tony was moaning making Steve sink his teeth into the meat of his left shoulder just to hear the young man cry out.

Knowing he wouldn't last for long Steve sat up again and grabbed Tony's hips, reangling him and stopping his movements.

Steve aimed and hit his prostate with every thrust resulting in the young man crying out his name repeatedly until he could only get out the first syllable.

Just for the extra pleasure he also started stroking Tony's dick.

Tony almost couldn't take it, the pressure kept building low in his gut until he thought he might burst, pleasure came at him from all sides until finally it started to crest only to get stuck just shy of where he wanted it, he was so close but he couldn't get there "st-Steve" he moaned desperately.

The older man smirked as Tony's body started to go stiff again, he moaned and leaned down, sliding his hands forward on his back Steve slid them around his ribs to his chest until he could pinch the young man's nipples.

He felt Tony's body jerk under his own as he cried out and grinned against the back of his head continuing to fuck him through his orgasm.

When tony went slack Steve started to really pound into him listening to his faint breathy moans until he himself was right on the edge and reached out fingers tangling into Tony's hair he turned his head just enough to meet his lips in a desperate kiss.

Tony couldn't move as it felt like everything in his body was drained out through his dick.

He could only moan and whimper as Steve continued to thrust.

Not fighting when Steve grabbed his hair he let the man turn his head and met his lips eagerly as he could, salt of their sweat stinging his injured lip.

With all of his remaining strength he met Steve's thrust and tightened then felt Steve go taught, moaning into his mouth as his slammed forward once more before he came, hips giving small aborted thrusts until he collapsed bonelessly on top of him.

Tony didn't mind his weight pressing him into the mattress, relaxing completely underneath him he sighed and basked in the afterglow until Steve moved, almost drowsily and slipped out.

He wasn't expecting to feel so empty when he did but he shook it off as Steve tied the condom and tossed it toured the trash, he wouldn't admit to being impressed when the man made it from half way across the room.

Tony was half wondering if he should get up, clean himself, get dressed and then leave until Steve rolled back over and his arm fell heavily over his back.

Turning his head to look at the man he saw his eyes already closed but he wasn't asleep.

"You don't have anything to do in the morning right" it wasn't a question and Steve said it through a yawn, not planning to move even if the young man said yes.

He could feel his surprise but was too tired to say anything about it, he felt tony shake his head and hummed in approval.

Hearing it tony closed his eyes and let himself be pulled into Steve's chest.

It was more comfortable that he thought it'd be.

And for once, sleep came for him instead of the other way around.


	6. Chapter 6

Sunlight shining in his eyes is what woke tony come morning; he was never the most intelligent person before a cup of coffee in the morning but even with his sleep addled brain he knew he wasn't in his own bed.

For one it smelled wrong, and second his bed spread was red, not blue.

The night before he thought it was black but it had been dark so he was probably wrong, and he'd been kind of distracted.

Thinking of the night before made him hum happily and snuggle back into the blankets for a moment.

Of course it didn't last for long because he could hear someone talking and he was craving coffee.

Lots of coffee.

Maybe he should buy out star bucks.

Shaking himself tony started to sit up only to hiss at the ache in his lower back, truthfully all his muscles ached but his back was worst.

Getting up more carefully now, the ache having mostly woken him up he grabbed his clothing, tossing on his briefs and pants before all but shuffling out of the room raking at his hair with one hand.

Steve stood with a phone pressed to his ear "wasn't much of a problem, had to out run the cops but I'm pretty fast" the blonde stopped, listing to whoever he was talking to before snorting "your cut? For what sitting on your ass for a week, I'm the one that had to do the heavy lifting"

Tony stood watching the man for a few minutes as he finished his call, the man still hadn't noticed him "yeah sure, give me a couple hours, sure you to buck, tell Barton I'm kicking his ass next time I see him"

The man put down his phone and turned then nearly dropped his coffee before his mouth twisted in amusement "you sneaky little ass, how long have you been standing there?"

He didn't sound annoyed, more amused than anything else, scratching at his head sleepily tony blinked hard "someone sitting on their ass expecting a cut"

With a hum the man nodded toured the counter "coffees hot"

That's all the invitation he needed.

Steve was surprised the young man could sneak up on him, the only person that could get the drop on him was his best friend and only then because they grew up together, he didn't know if he should be concerned or not.

Especially when the kid said he'd heard him talking about his haul from the night before.

Not that he wasn't sure tony didn't know already that he was a thief, also why was he amused that he could be snuck up on?

Last time his buddy Natasha tried it all that happened was he got pissed.

Maybe it was because he had a freshly fucked glow, he hadn't put on his shirt and Steve got a look at the bruises and beard burn he'd left on the smaller man's shoulders and neck as he stepped by toured the coffee pot.

Tony graved Steve's largest mug and filled it nearly to the brim.

He would have thought he'd have burned his mouth but he just took a swig and seemed to deflate a little making a weird pleased sound in the back of his throat that had Steve smiling.

Don't judge him it was cute!

So much so, he barely resisted walking up to him and biting the back of his neck just to see how he'd react.

He distracted himself by sipping his own coffee and leaning against the counter "so" he finally broke the silence "I have to meet with some people in about two hours, more like two and a half because their never on time, so if you need a ride anyplace"

Steve trailed off as the young man raised his head to look at him, tony looked more awake now that he had coffee in his system and Steve didn't exactly know what to make of that smirk.

Especially with the way the man's eyes wandered a little bit.

Steve was surprisingly chivalry for a thief, he wasn't even straight up kicking tony out, more like hinting at tony needed to be on his way before too long.

Not that he planned to hang around too long, it was a Thursday if he was correct, which he always was, and he had class at noon, not that he really needed to go to school, he'd graduated from MIT when he was 17 and he wasn't sure he'd ever use the science degree he was working on now.

Then again, it got him away from his dick head dad so it wasn't all that bad.

As he thought about that, he couldn't help letting his eyes wander over Steve's chest and shoulders, the tight short sleeve and running pants didn't do much to hide his muscle and while tony got a good look the night before he couldn't help looking again.

Don't blame him the guy basically radiated sex.

It was hot.

Tony lifted his mug again with a smirk finally tearing his eyes away from Steve's position leaned against the counter, he was just wondering what would happen if he knelt between his legs when he caught sight of a clock from the corner of his eye.

11:49am.

He nearly dropped his coffee mug "fuck I'm late!"

Steve barely grabbed the coffee mug tony shoved at him as he bolted passed.

Graving the cup he watched the younger man ran passed and into his bedroom apparently gathering the rest of his clothing.

Steve gave him an amused look as he reappeared hopping around on one foot while trying to get his second shoe on, what he was late for Steve had no idea but apparently, it was important.

"You sure you don't need that ride?" tony who had finally managed to get his shoes on was snatching up his bag and bolting back toured him for the coffee cup Steve still held "yeah no sorry can't wait not far"

He threw his head back and gulped down the coffee in a way that made Steve shiver despite himself "hey" he called as the young man was running away "what" he stopped to look back and Steve pointed.

"Get those hands checked out" tony nodded and grinned at him "yeah I will"

Tony paused for a moment biting his bottom lip and Steve couldn't help watching as something ran through his head before he turned back.

He watched the young man approach and raise up on his toes in front of him and because he was nice, Steve bent down slightly to meet his lips.

The kiss was short sweet and dirty and when tony pulled away Steve saw him smiling slightly "last night was fun" he said before turning and making a beeline for the door "we should do it again sometime"

He wasn't sure if the young man heard him or not but he didn't care; he'd probably never see the kid again.

Turning to the window that faced the street he watched the kid bolt out of the front door and was running full tilt down the street, the kid was fast he'd give him that.

With a smirk he turned back toured his bedroom to get clothing for a shower and saw a black shirt on the side of his bed.

Frowning slightly he went and picked it up and then stood back slightly "sonofabitch" he said with a smirk looking at the old Metallica logo on the shirt.

The little ass stole one of his shirts.

Tony was late to class but only by about 10 minutes and it was easy to sneak into his seat in the back of the class.

His friend Bruce banner didn't look up from his writing but tony saw him smirk and wondered why.

In lab during their free time he asked and the slightly older man smirked at him softly "that's not your shirt"

Confused tony looked down "of course it's my-" he started then stopped when he found he was wearing a blue shirt with a white star in the center of it.

"Sonofabitch"


	7. Chapter 7

He was not pouting.

He was tony stark he didn't pout!

He was a genius, a billionaire, a scientist; he... had no good excuse.

Ok he was pouting but so sue him he was entitled, after all, yeah the sex was good and the no strings attached thing was awesome but it was not worth his favorite shirt.

And now even if he got something out of the deal aside from the great sex, which really, first touch with his gay side was pretty awesome, he was more than likely never going to see the guy again, hints one night stand hello, but that also meant his shirt was gone forever.

Sex so wasn't worth a vintage lucky Metallica t-shirt, even if it was gay sex.

Tony was sitting leaning on the desk in the lab space he and Bruce had all but taken over and claimed for themselves, running numbers in his head as he was want to do, so far he was at a 0.08319% chance of ever seeing Steve again.

Even if he did know where he lived, but going to sneak into the guys apartment just for a shirt was a little to ex-girlfriend stalker-isk for his style.

Also the guy was a thief, he had friends, lord knew what kind of security systems he had, sneaking into a criminals apartment was like going to a zoo in a bacon suit to clean out the pens with a big ol 'eat me' sign tapped to his back.

Now he was thinking about bacon.

He should have eaten breakfast, or lunch, or dinner the night before.

"Tony!"

He jumped at the shout of his name "the hell!" he demanded and looked at Bruce who was standing back looking amused "damn it brucie don't do that, I have a heart condition!"

Bruce shook his head fondly "no you don't tony, we've talked about this you just drink too much caffeine, also I was asking what happened to your hands"

Confused tony looked down just as they decided to throb and remembered the cuts.

They hurt more now that he was thinking about them.

"Just a fight with my old man"

He noticed the second Bruce got mother Hen-y because the man focused all his attention on him, even turning on the stool he'd sat on and pushed up his glasses "are you alright?"

Tony waved his hand "yeah, yeah, I'm fine just cut my hands up a little on a broken vase before I bailed"

"And met someone who was clearly taller and wider than you?" the man tugged at the sleeve of the shirt making tony swat at him "yeah I, ran into him while I was walking around"

Bruce smirked apparently catching the meaning "and he, what, took you hope to bandage your hands?" tony angled his head "well yeah that did happen" he barely surpassed a shiver remembering the way the man had but it "and I recognize that look so I don't want to hear any more about that, just let me see your hands"

Tony smirked at the man and dutifully held out his hands palm up for the man to examine "I don't see how it even matters really" he said as Bruce cut away the bandages "I mean I'm never gonna see the guy again"

The man glanced up from his work and seemed like he almost wanted to smirk, "you never know," he finally said before disinfecting the cuts stopping Tony's reply behind his teeth.

Shit but that hurt.

Steve walked into an antique/junk shop around 1:45 in the afternoon still amused from Tony's exit even if he was never going to see him, or his shirt, again.

He had a feeling the man's memory was going to become one he would look back on when he needed something to make him smile, which he didn't understand.

While Steve was no slut he did get around, after his first few attempts at relationships ended with sever heartbreak and nearly being turned into the cops, he had decided it was easier sticking with one-night stands whenever he got the itch for company.

Sure sometimes he missed the feeling of having someone else in his bed, having someone to wake up next to and feel the warmth of their body begging him to stay under the sheets and ignore the world.

He'd been in and out of so many beds over the years since his last failed relationship he forgot what it felt like...

Ok maybe he was a little bit of a slut but that was beside the point.

His point was he missed having a relationship, making love instead of just having sex.

Not that he was going to do anything about it though, it was too dangerous and why was he even thinking about this anyway?

He'd never see the kid again, or his lucky shirt with the star on it.

While most thieves would freak out if they lost their lucky whatever he didn't, it was just superstition and besides, tony probably needed the luck more than he did, if his father hurt him enough to drive him out of his home in the middle of the night.

It might make things better for him.

Shaking himself Steve smiled at the teenage blonde girl behind the counter than grinned back even if her cheeks went slightly red and nodded toured the back room.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one early.

Checking his watch, Steve hitched his bag higher on his shoulder and walked into the back room.

Sometimes having wide shoulders really fucking sucked, he thought as he slid between some random pieces of furniture all but

having to walk sideways in some places.

He was pretty sure sometimes Jan kept it like that on purpose just to give him grief.

If her cooking wasn't so damn good, he was sure they'd have found a new place to meet up years ago.

Then again, this place was also a good place to offload their loot so, maybe he shouldn't complain too loud.

He caught an expensive looking vase that his bag knocked over and cursed while putting it back, then again maybe he should complain louder.

Reaching the door to the back room, a private office of sorts, he opened the door and walked in.

A man was sitting at the table in the center of the room, feet kicked up on the table and reading a book of some sort, it looked like a ledger.

Dropping his bag on the table he leaned on it with one arm and put the other at his hip "Jan having you fix the books again?" he questioned.

The dark haired man glanced up for barely a moment before returning his eyes to the pages and instead of speaking immediately, flicked his fingers at Steve in a gesture Steve knew since childhood.

Basically, it stood for 'shut the fuck up I'm concentrating'

Steve rose a brow at the motion and smirked, sitting across from the man, it took about two minutes for him to pencil in something erase something else, then close the book and toss it onto the table "Barton moved some big products recently, idiot forgot to tell us until yesterday" he explained.

With a smirk Steve leaned forward "I'm sure that's all there was" if he added any more sarcasm to his words he was sure the man would try and smack him "funny punk" Bucky Barnes said and pulled his feet off the table to stand and look at Steve's haul.

"There might have been a few extra expenses Jan needed to make disappear" Steve smirked and leaned back in his seat making it squeak "clothes or shoes"

"Yes" he couldn't stop his laugh not that he tried "also" Bucky suddenly spoke looking up from the loot "Barton bought you some more of that solvent shit you use, trying to buy your forgiveness I guess"

Steve snorted and crossed his arms "normally I'd a least demand new charcoals but it wasn't that bad so I won't kill him, this time"

Apparently, something in his voice made his childhood friend curious because he looked up through dark strands of hair not held in the knot on the back of his head "who'd you follow home"

Steve tried to look innocent but he was never good at it so he doubted he fooled Bucky "what are you talking about barns?"

"I'd know that fresh fucked glow anywhere Rogers, spill, who let a devil like you into their bed"

Steve pursed his lips in an amused way "everyone"

The slightly older man stumbled back and grasped his chest with his hand "oh god! The ego! It's smothering me" Steve couldn't help laughing; it was nice hearing Bucky teasing like he use to before the accident.

"So spill" Bucky said again sitting back down in his chair leaving the haul ignored in exchange for gossiping like a teenager, which neither of them has been in years.

"Just a guy that kept me out of the back of a squad car, trick Nat told us about works pretty well" Bucky stared at him "you made out with some guy on the side of the street to avoid the cops?"

For a moment after Steve nodded, everything was silent and then Bucky started laughing, "That's my boy!" Steve rolled his eyes and shook his head "fuck off barns" he muttered then looked around "So where is everyone?"

Bucky looked up from the phone he had pulled out of some crevice Steve didn't want to think about "Barton's gonna be late as usual, Jan it on the internet possibly shopping, and Romanov is still in class, she'll be here after she's finished and picked up the solvent shit Barton ordered"

Steve smirked slightly "it's called turpentine Bucky and I didn't see you calling it shit when it got that 'mysterious' stain out of your shirt"

Bucky glared at him at the reminded of the job gone wrong in so many ways.

It hadn't even been the job that caused it, it had been the prank war the job had started, and it lasted for months and only stopped when Steve threatened bodily harm.

Even now, he wasn't positive it really stopped; more like was stuck on hold.

Or happened where Steve couldn't catch wind from it or get doused in buckets filled with melted ice water.

Again.


	8. Chapter 8

"Turpentine!"

Bruce jumped from where he was leaning over a set of vials with different colored chemicals; he accidentally dropped a vial of sodium polyacrylate into the beaker water he had sat off to the side for a different experiment.

And now he had snow.

With a deep sigh he turned to face tony, the young man had an expression like he just figured out the cure for the common cold, or won free coffee for a year.

"What?" Bruce questioned making the man look up; apparently tony forgot there was someone in the room with him... again.

It was both scary and sad how often that happened.

Tony waved a hand muttering something under his breath while looking back at a piece of paper that was either a report due next class or more of his usual ramblings or notes about artificial intelligence.

Again.

Honestly he got lucky once a few years ago with C++ soft wear and built a helper robot with a buggy AI and suddenly it was all he could think about, he talked about that robot a lot, he named it dummy.

Well actually, he complained about it a lot then threatened to sell it or install it at a manufacturing facility somewhere, which was actually genuine stark affection.

Dropping his pen tony looked up at Bruce "I thought I smelled something and I've been trying to figure out what it was all day"

Suddenly Bruce felt amused at his friend, he'd noticed the younger man sniffing at the shirt he wore a few times, and of course he'd assumed it was because of the shirts mysterious owner.

He had been right, again, looking down and taking his glasses off to clean them he let himself smirk when he looked up again he schooled his face into fondness, which wasn't that difficult to do, he did love the younger man like a brother.

"it makes since" he said catching the man's attention again then nodded at the shirt "I'm pretty sure those are stains from some kind of paint, most likely oil basses, and turpentine is used as a paint solvent"

Tony furrowed his brow and pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, biting on it for a moment before he laughed "fucking cordite" he said and rested his head in his hand while still chuckling.

Bruce raised his brows "what?" tony shook his head and grinned up at Bruce with his noble prize acceptance face, like he'd just solved some great mystery.

"I smelled cordite, I thought that, but he was a fucking artist, and I saw cordite and charcoal pencils," he remembered spotting them before he'd left the room sitting on a desk.

How had he not figured it out before now he had no idea, it was hilarious.

"Did you let him sniff the fumes again Bruce" both men turned to look at a woman standing in the doorway in a button up white shirt and a smart skirt with heels that made her taller than tony, as well as her hair tied back in a ponytail and a book under her arm.

You almost couldn't see the colored stripes in her hair.

"Pepper!" tony grinned at his friend jumping up from his seat the carrot top looked up from the phone she had in her other hand and rolled her eyes "hi tony, grab your bag or were going to be late for physical anthropology"

Tony made a face "pepper" he started and the woman put down her phone and looked right at him.

She showed the device away and put a hand on her hip that she angled to the side she rose a brow at tony, Bruce recognized it as her genuine all-encompassing 'do as I say' expression.

It immediately made tony whine at her "but pepper it shouldn't even be a class" her brow perked further and she stepped out of the doorway pointing out into the hall "move it stark"

He made a face then attempted to use puppy eyes...

It didn't work.

Heaving a sigh tony got up and gathered his things but he wasn't in any rush to do so.

Until pepper made a sound of aggravation, "Anthony Edward Stark I swear to god if you make me late for class" he shoved the rest of his books in his bag and leapt toured the door but pepper still grabbed him and drug him out the door.

He managed to slow her long enough to call "bye Brucie-bear" over his shoulder which made him roll his eyes and shake his head, he was going to need another huge bag of weed before the year was up he could already tell.

Half way down the hall tony shook off peppers hand "why do I even have to take this class" he whined not for the first time "because it was either this or art and you can't draw worth a damn?" pepper asked.

Tony pouted at her with a glare that shouldn't have been as cute as it was.

"Come on pepper, I don't have time for old uninspired lessons on outdated and disproven knowledge" pepper rolled her eyes and pushed back her hair "if you want to graduate you need to suck it up, and don't sass the professor this time"

Tony mimicked her then stuck out his tongue because he was literally two years old and then because he wasn't watching where he was going or even paying attention he rammed right into someone's back.

"oww what the" he stopped and stared at who he ran into, it was a young woman with bright red hair wearing black skinny jeans and a leather jacket, when she looked at him he saw her lips were bright red and she had risen one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

She was beautiful but at the same time scary looking as hell.

Even with the purple backpack on her shoulder she looked like she could kill him and when her lips suddenly twitched up slightly it made him fear for his life "interesting" she murmured eyes skimming over him before focusing back on his face "watch where you're going"

With that she turned and walked away, absently he noticed the smell of turpentine and saw she was carrying a jug of it "tony were going to be late for class" pepper pulled him to his feet and started pulling him down the hall as he shook himself.

The woman looked strangely familure.


	9. Chapter 9

When something hit Natasha Romanov in the back, she didn't expect what she found.

The collision at first made her nearly drop the jug of turpentine she was carrying but when she looked back, she discovered the possibility of dropping it and making a mess was worth it.

The person that had ran into her was the local rich boy Anthony stark, thought of as a little bit of a playboy by the majority of female students Natasha thought he didn't look it with the way he was sitting on the floor.

When he ran into her, she had barely even stumbled and she was both smaller and slightly shorter than he was.

Of course, his reputation around school wasn't what made her raise her brow and neither was the fact he was on his ass while she was still standing.

What caught her attention was the shirt he was wearing, it was blue and had a white star in the center and it was too large for him by about two or three sizes.

She actually recognized some of the stains and had to press her lips together to keep from smirking as the young man looked at her nearly terrified but also marveling at her beauty.

If anyone asked she wasn't vain, she was just telling the truth.

"interesting" she said to herself as she looked him over again before discreetly readjusting her backpack "what's where you're going" she recommended before turning to walk away, she was already late because her class ran late and now she was curious.

Why did stark have her bosses shirt.

Well she knew a possibility of why and she was pretty positive she knew how but as she walked out of school toured the parking lot she couldn't help wondering why Steve didn't say anything, after all.

It was supposed to be his lucky shirt.

After school and a scolding from pepper about sassing the teacher and watching where he was going, he went home.

He managed to avoid his father but that was no surprise, the man was getting drunk or at a meeting, tony went to his room where his robot was waiting in its charging station.

Dum-e looked up when tony closed his bedroom door and whirred in greeting.

"Hey dum-e break anything while I was gone? Who am I kidding of course you did let's see the damage you bucket of bolts" he went to his computer and took off the casing of the brain, his computer wasn't exactly like most peoples, and not just because he was rich.

He built it himself, programmed it himself and all but added spinning wheels and a cup holder to it, he could use it for anything he wanted so long as the second hard drive was attached which out of security conservers was a pain in the ass to install and damn near worse to uninstall.

Even for him and he build the damn thing.

Nevertheless, better to put up with five minutes of connecting wires and restarting the computer than spend several years in jail for hacking the pentagon.

Although he had a perfectly good reason for that when he did it, if anyone asked he was sure he could think one up.

Maybe, pepper told him he had a horrible poker face.

Once it was installed, he powered up the machine and waited for it to boot up then went back to his project from the night before.

Truth be told he was surprised it had taken so long as it had to get in, it took him like 10 minutes to get into a local police stations systems to take care of one of his speeding tickets, it shouldn't have taken almost half an hour just to get into the directory of his collage.

Whoever it was that build the schools systems didn't make the backdoor nearly as obvious as he could have, not that it mattered tony was all but hardwired into the systems now, hopefully, hopefully.

Thankfully, the alterations he had needed to make only took five minutes if that and getting his teacher reassigned to a different school took less than that.

Honestly, a reassign was long overdue the woman who had been in charge of one of his classes had been being a royal bitch, especially to the male students, the last straw had been the fact she nearly failed everyone in the class that wasn't a female, even him, especially him.

It just wasn't cool.

Once he was finished, he shut the system down again and pulled out the drive, he placed it in a case and then slipped it into his bag.

Spinning around in his chair he nearly bumped his head on DUM-E's claw, the bot had taken a liking to sneaking up behind him while he was working and either dropping something on him or pulling his hair.

Tony knew it was just DUM-E's way of saying he needed to take a break but damn he hit his head on the robots metal frame more than anything else recently.

"maybe I should donate you to a city collage" he said reaching up to pat DUM-E's strut, the robot whirred in what he would guess to be over exaggerated dismay, then again tony built him so everything he did was over exaggerated.

Shaking his head tony stood up and walked to his bathroom to start a shower but after the water started he paused with getting undressed taking the shirt he wore he lifted it up to smell it.

Cordite pencils, turpentine, frosty mint and a musky scent that was just Steve.

The smell had faded in the time tony had been wearing the shirt but it was still there like it had soaked into the threads of the fabric, shaking his head tony pulled off the shirt and sat it on the shelf with his towels before kicking his pants off in the general direction of his hamper.

His shower was quick and he didn't linger even if the warm water felt amazing because he had work to do and to do that work he needed to go to his lab.

Preferably, before he ran into his old man.

Grabbing his bag he shoved a couple changes of clothes into it then looked at DUM-E and patted his frame "come on you klutz lets go do science" the robot beeped excitedly and rolled to his charging station.

As his robot companion made himself comfortable and shut down so tony could transfer his data chip, tony looked at where that damn shirt was laying then sighed and grabbed it, shoving it into his bag before he could think better of it.

Tony's 'lab' was what use to be a decommissioned stark industries warehouse nearly on the other side of the business district, it used to be used for storage of things like paperwork files designs and prototypes but a new storage building was build closer to the company with more advanced security and more shelf space.

It was going to be torn down and made into a parking lot or something but he had gotten ahold of the paperwork and altered it so it was given to him because he saw potential in it.

Therefore, it became Tony's home away from home.

So, basically his actual home.

It was two levels, the first floor was open with a support or two, some cars sat in the far right corner across from a small kitchen area he had labeled 'DUM-Es corner.

He also had an old couch he'd crash on sometimes when he didn't want to go upstairs, where there was a bedroom bathroom and another small kitchen area, along with some more sciencey work areas instead of the tool and part covered areas on the first floor.

Walking over to the mechanical claw body tony inserted DUM-Es drive and turned him on patting him on the strut before walking over to one of his desks.

While true, he didn't have much to do with his father's company sometimes the people in R&D would ask him to look over and subsequently fix their designs or work out a design that had been giving them trouble.

Currently there were three designs he needed to fix two he needed to fabricate and there were a few dozen ideas of his own he wanted to bring to life and send in to R&D because their designs had slowly started to taper off.

Then again, there were only so many times you could redesign a scope before it became asinine.

So setting his school shit aside, he made a pot of coffee and got to work.

Three days after the meeting Steve and the rest of his friends/gang/whatever, went to a local pizza place to get something to eat to celebrate a big haul.

For the last three days ever since the meeting Natasha had been giving him a strange looks, glancing at him and smirking to herself enough he nearly blurted out 'what?' in the middle of their recent robbery.

So now, after she was relaxed with a bottle of beer he called her to the side to talk.

"What have you been smirking at me about?" he asked finally hands resting at his hips.

She tried to give him an innocent look but gave up when he just perked one of his brows "I just find your reason for turning down all my blind dates amusing is all"

For a second he was confused before realizing what she meant and gave her an unimpressed look "I turned you down because I'm not interested in a relationship"

Now she was giving him an unimpressed look "how did you even find out about that?" he asked her lips twitched "a good spy never reveals her sources, the real question is are you going to see him again"

Steve rolled his eyes and huffed "it's been three days it's highly unlikely, I told you I'm not looking for a relationship"

"Steve" he looked toured Bucky who had called his name and was now waving him over "even for a lucky shirt?" Natasha asked and Steve rolled his eyes again as he turned away "it's not that lucky"

Natasha watched her friend return to the group and couldn't help smiling a little "I know that look" someone said from beside her and she looked at Jan who was holding a slice of pizza in one hand and a beer in the other.

It was amazing the woman could eat like Steve or Bucky but still be modal thin "what look?" Natasha questioned "the look you get before trying to set Steve up on another blind date"

She shrugged at Jan's comment, "Steve's the kind of man that needs to be in a relationship"

"Whether he wants one or not?" Jan asked and Natasha smiled at the brunet woman "exactly, besides he's already done most of the work for me"

Jan shook her head and sighed "well I want no part of this your last attempt got him shot at" Natasha shrugged "how was I supposed to know he'd slept with her sister"

Jan sighed again and didn't see Natasha smirking at her before looking back at Steve.

The read head really could help imagining him with the young man from her school and she had to admit they would make a cute couple.

Now just to make Steve figure that out.


	10. Chapter 10

The owner of the pizza place had to kick them out so they could close and from there some of them went to a local bar to play pool and drink until 2 am.

They parted ways on the sidewalk outside, Natasha and Bucky holding a very drunk Clint between them, the man never learned that he couldn't beat Steve and Bucky in a drinking contest.

One because Bucky use to be in the army and two Steve couldn't get drunk.

Not that he hadn't tried several times its just he couldn't get more than buzzed, at least not anymore.

It was good when it came to drinking contests though.

Walking back toured his apartment he heard a scuffle sound from an alley as he passed by and paused before backing up a step and looking down it, two guys had someone cornered against a wall.

Looked like a mugging.

With a deep sigh Steve turned and started down the alley, it was a well-known fact Steve didn't like bullies, despised them actually, and half his reputation came from beating the shit out of them.

Not that he had a reputation or anything people just knew he didn't like bullies.

Tony was up late working on his projects again, it didn't matter than it was a school night or that this was the third night in a row since he went to his little workshop that wasn't the little.

Technically, he wasn't up late again because he had yet to go to sleep.

Pepper had commented on it while in class that morning when he nearly nodded off on her shoulder.

Therefore, under threat of her wrath he was going home, walking, at two in the morning, with his head still distracted by the ideas running around in it from earlier.

It honestly wasn't his fault this time.

He thought he heard someone following him so he pulled his bag up higher on his shoulder and walked faster.

Tony was cursing himself for not leaving sooner when he heard steps approaching faster at his left side, he glanced back, saw two dark figured and then he ran.

Running had never been his strong suit but he could be a quick little shit when he needed to be, after a botched kidnapping nine years ago just before his mother left he made sure of that.

His driver happy had also taught him self-defense which came in handy when an arm grabbed him and he swung his elbow back into the persons chin to get away.

Tony heard them make a sound of pain and tried to run again but a different set of hands grabbed him and threw him into an alley.

Landing in a roll he was back up on his feet and turning to face his assailants in time for one of them to punch him in the face he stumbled back against the wall and they crowded in one him "I'll be damn if it isn't that stark brat" one of them said.

"and they know who I am great" he thought before standing up again "you're going to regret this, walk away now" it was a weak threat he knew it was but he was tired and running a blank.

They laughed, "Please, like you could do anything to us"

One of the stepped forward and reached for him "your daddy's gonna pay a shit ton for your little ass" tony curled his fingers and punched him as hard as he could like happy taught him.

It had a less than desirable effect.

While he was slightly turned toured, his friend the other guy grabbed Tony's shoulder and spun him around ramming him face first into the brick wall.

He felt his nose crunch and wasn't sure if it broke or not.

He hoped not his face was his best feature.

"and what a nice ass it is" the guy pinning him sneered "think he's ever taken it up the ass danny?" he asked his friend apparently not caring about saying their names "waste if he hadn't, I wonder if they'd pay for damaged property" goon two said.

The first one laughed, "Like anyone would know until after we got paid"

Tony scrunched his face in a way that made his nose hurt and jerked in the guy's hold pushing one of his feet back and making a scuffling noise but he also managed the nail the guy in the balls so that was a plus.

Until the goon slung tony to the ground, he didn't even want to think what he landed in.

He glanced back from where he landed in time to see a dark figure slide up behind the leering goons on silent feet.

Then he caught a flash of blonde hair before the person struck.

"No fucking way" he thought.

Steve slid up behind the muggers and apparently attempted rapists, just as they slung their pray to the ground.

He hated creeps like them so he didn't waste time on trying to scare the living hell out of them, instead he reached forward and grabbed a hand full of one of their hair yanked back and rammed the first man's head into the second man's before pulling him and side stepping to punch him in the face.

The man grabbed his nose and went to one knee as Steve heard a sound and spun out of the way of the second man that tried to lunge at him.

As he passed Steve slammed his elbow into the back of his neck making him stumble and fall into the knee he was driving up, which both choked him and over balanced him.

When Steve turned to look at the person they were attempting to mug, he heard the sound of glass and turned just in time to dodge the broken glass bottle the first guy was trying to stab him with.

Ducking out of the way of the second stab he punched the guy in the middle twice then spun around as he stood up for a spinning kick to his skull which knocked him out and possibly fractured it.

He didn't give a shit.

Taking a breath, he stood ready and looked between the two muggers who both laid on the ground groaning, as he watched the one he'd kneed in the middle threw up but it wasn't bloody so he didn't honestly care.

Turning away from them, he looked at the guy that was now sitting up with blood on his face with brown eyes and dark hair and- son of a bitch.

"We have to stop meeting like this"

Tony made a face at the man who he now saw was Steve "agreed, though I think were even now, I save your ass you save mine"

He reached out and took the hand Steve extended "like that's the only think I did to your ass" tony snorted but that hurt so he grabbed his nose and punched at the taller man "I want my shirt back, its vintage"

Tony saw the man roll his eyes "well mines lucky and you're not getting yours back until I get mine back"

He glared at the older man.

Steve couldn't help smirking at the smaller man, why it was fun to tease him he had no idea.

"Damn good think it's in my bag" Steve's interest peeked as the young man opened said bag one handed and extracted a familiar wad of blue fabric.

He took the shirt and looked at it for a moment before glancing up at tony who was holding his nose with one hand, noticing it was still bleeding slightly Steve put his shirt over his shoulder and reached inside his jacket to pull out a square of cloth which he held out to the young man.

When Steve held out a real life handkerchief tony felt like laughing but his nose hurt too much "seriously I didn't think people carried these anymore unless they were ninety, and it's even monogramed" tony said taking it and looking at the SR in the corner before looking back at Steve.

"Sure you want to ruin the pearly white thing with blood?"

The man shook his head slightly "I'm sure as hell not ninety and it won't be the first time that things been bloody, I know a trick for getting blood out but that doesn't mean I want you bleeding on my damn rugs, now shut up and use it before I change my mind"

Tony couldn't help mock saluting the man as he held it up to his nose to stop the bleeding.

Steve felt more amused at the man than annoyed for some reason and had to turn away to hide his twitching lips.

"My apartments not far, what the hell were you even doing out here kid" he asked as he started walking, the young man paused for a moment before following him.

"so were back to the kid think again, if you have to know I was working late, lost track of time, what are you doing out here? I don't see any bag of stolen shit"

Steve rolled his eyes "I don't steal shit kid, and aside from saving you I don't see how it matters"

He saw the moment the young man became indignant "I didn't need saving I have it under control"

Steve stopped turn turned a disbelieving expression toured the young man who met his eyes "I can be damn fast when I want to be" he said and Steve couldn't help the slow smile that curled his lips.

Tony didn't quite like the look Steve was giving him but at the same time he barely stopped himself from shivering.

The glimmer he saw in the man's blue eyes was both unnerving and arousing

"We'll see," he said slowly and this time tony couldn't stop the shiver that raced up his spine.

Then suddenly he noticed something.

"You shaved"

Steve nearly tripped over himself and looked at the young man with raised brows, blinking a few times before he laughed, he couldn't help it as he turned and dropped his arm around the smaller man's shoulders.

"come on kid, let's get you cleaned up, then maybe if you're a good boy I'll give you your shirt back" he heard a grumbled 'I'm 22' as they started walking and had to chuckle.

This kid was funny he'd give him that.


	11. Chapter 11

They reached the apartment in about five minutes and tony hated the steps even more when he couldn't breathe through his nose.

"I'm fixing that damn elevator" he said when they reached the door making Steve chuckle slightly "good luck it's been broken since I moved in, guy that owns the building has tried to get it repaired, it never takes"

Tony wanted to snort but his nose was still blocked "well he's never had a genius fix it"

Steve glanced back at him with a smirk "genius huh?" he said opening the door and letting him in.

Tony didn't bother looking around this time he just marched forward and flopped onto Steve's couch because his face hurt and because it was a damn comfortable couch "head of class in college" tony confirmed.

"Well mister genius" Steve came over to sit on the coffee table just like last time tony had been there "what the hell were you doing out there this late, your old man fucking with ya again?"

Tony scowled at Steve "I worked late and was heading home, and I could have handled them on my own," he said.

Steve raised one brow at him and his mouth pulled slightly to the side "really?"

"You doubt me?" tony said exaggerating a offended expression that didn't really work with the bloody rag on his nose "oh I'm sure you would've done something"

Steve reached out and pushed Tony's head down "namely gotten your ass kicked worse than if I hadn't shown up, head down makes it stop faster" the man explained at Tony's look before standing and walking toured the kitchen.

"My hero" tony muttered to himself

Steve heard tony muttering and couldn't help smirking, he didn't want to admit that it was nice to hear his snarking.

He didn't want to think about how different the altercation he got into could have gone, if Steve had ignored the scuffling in the alley he was sure the young man would have been severely hurt if not killed.

The thought made his hands clench around the mug he pulled from the cabinet, which was a mistake as the weak ceramic mug that was possibly as old as he was broke and the sharp edge stabbed him in the palm.

He bit back a curse and dropped the broken mug into the sink with a quiet clattering sound, drops of red plinking against the sink as he pulled a shard out of his palm.

It wasn't that deep or even that painful but it was enough to be annoying, he hadn't accidentally hurt himself like that in years.

Turning on the water, he held his hand under it and reached out for a rag from the cabinet, muttering a line of curse words that would have made his ma blush and smack his head he wrapped it around his hand and tied it off with a jerk before getting another mug and pouring coffee into it.

He had noticed tony seemed to quite enjoy coffee, if the young man grabbing his largest mug and scalding his tongue was anything to go by he was probably addicted to it.

A dark thought entered his mind of just what those worse things consisted of and they were not fond memories.

Shaking his head he walked out of the kitchen, saw tony had leaned back on his couch, and propped his feet up, it looked like his nose had stopped bleeding, his arms were crossed and his head leaned back, he almost thought the young man sleeping until he opened his eyes and looked up.

"I smell coffee," he said.

Steve huffed a quiet laugh and held out the mug "looks like you need it" he said and started to turn away after the young man took it but was stopped by the hand closing around his wrist.

He looked at tony and rose a brow in question but the boy ignored him.

Steve didn't know why he let the young man turn his hand over to look at his palm but it made his stomach feel weird when he saw Tony's brows furrow at the stain of red on the make shift bandage.

It almost felt nice.

Tony accepted the mug of coffee from Steve but noticed something wrapped around his hand so without even thinking about it he moved his coffee to one hand and grabbed his wrist.

Still using one hand, he turned the man's hand over and looked with lowered brows at the stain of red seeping into what had to be a kitchen rag.

"Is this turning into a habit for us?" he questioned mouth tugging at one side as he looked up at Steve.

The man looked slightly caught off guard for a moment before shaking himself, tony saw the moment Steve put on a mask and quirked his lips arrogantly "no, unlike you this is from my own stupidity and cheap coffee cups" he tugged at his wrist and tony let him pull away.

He rose one of his brows in question while his mouth tugged to the side but Steve had turned away to sit in a recliner so he doubted the thief saw it.

Deciding not to question it because the man was bigger than he was, and shaking off the thoughts of just how many ways that was true, tony turned his attention to the coffee in his hands.

He didn't know how it didn't get awkward between them when it was silent, after all, he could feel Steve watching him, but it was nice being able to just sit in silence and enjoy it.

The only problem was he wanted to ask this stranger questions but he didn't know how to bring them up.

At least not well.

"So, I've been wondering about something" he finally said and glanced up at Steve.

Steve openly watched tony after silence fell, he wasn't positive why he did it but the man just seemed interesting, like he was a puzzle.

When he was a child Steve spent a lot of time doing puzzles, anything he could get his hands on to keep himself busy as yet another day passed where he wasn't healthy enough to go outside.

He had always liked puzzles and that hadn't changed just because one day he got healthy, part of the reason he was a thief was because it was a challenge.

Distantly he realized that maybe that was why he got that tightening in his gut when he saw tony, because he was a puzzle Steve had yet to figure out; then again, maybe it was just because tony was quite attractive.

Yeah that was probably it.

Steve took a minute to study him, tony was sitting leaned forward with both hands around his coffee mug, his dark hair was messy from the scuffle earlier and he could see the beginnings of a bruise on his tanned cheek.

Steve was pretty sure the stains on his shirt were oil or grease of some kind his jeans were ripped and looked like they were burned in a few places, Steve was pretty sure whatever story was behind those were good ones.

Tony's eyes were also dark, the kind of dark that had to do with not sleeping for days, the tanned skin under his eyes were darker than the rest of his skin and he was being quiet.

He'd only met the young man twice but he was pretty sure being quiet wasn't something he did.

Not without a reason.

"So, I've been wondering about something" Steve nearly jumped when he spoke because he was so caught up in his own thoughts, he hated doing that but at least he wasn't on a job.

Looking over he saw tony peer up at him for a minute before looking back at his coffee.

"I mean" tony started again shifting slightly in his seat "I'm pretty positive I know the answer already, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out so I have no idea why it took me so long because I am a genius, if anyone ever asks why it took so long I'm just gonna say I was distracted"

Steve saw the exact moment he made himself shut up because he took a large drink of coffee, it was kind of amusing to watch him stumble over himself as he tried to figure out the best way to ask his question, Steve was pretty sure exactly what he was going to ask to.

Was he a thief?

"what?" he asked after a minute, shifting to the side to lean on the arm of his chair while his lips twitched trying to quirk up on one side, he was sure he sounded more amused than he probably should about someone asking about his less than legal part time job.

Tony sat up and turned eyeing him for a moment before pointing toured the wall "did you draw those? I mean do you draw, are you an artist?"

That... surprised Steve.

He honestly couldn't remember the last time someone asked him that, "I, yeah, how could you tell?"

Tony noticed the way Steve went from looking amused to looking surprised when he asked and guessed he suspected tony to ask something else.

Tony wanted to roll his eyes, like he had to ask if he was a thief, he already knew that.

"well, I am a genius" the older man snorted a laugh and tony made a face at him there's "also there's oil pain stains on your shirt and it smells like turpentine, and you use cordite pencils cause it kind of smells like gunpowder"

The man made a huh sound then tilted his head slightly "well, using the same process I would hazard a guess that you're a mechanic" he said after a moment.

Tony huffed indignantly "I am not a mechanic, I am an engineer"

Steve's lips quirked up in amusement and he rose his hands as if in surrender "right engineer"

He almost laughed when the young man glared at him "aren't you too young to be an engineer?" he asked after a moment and Tony's glare hardened for a moment before he shrugged "I graduated early"

"What when you were 10?" Steve asked incredulously, tony took an annoying sip of his coffee "17" he corrected then looked toured Steve "I told you I was a genius"

Steve looked at his mug "then why weren't you smart enough to know not to walk through that part of town at two in the morning"

He heard tony sigh and glanced up to see he had crossed his arms and slumped back looking a lot like a dejected teenager "I could have handled it" he muttered, "no you couldn't have"

Tony sighed again but stayed silent this time silently accepting what Steve said as true, either that or just plain old ignoring him.

Kids these days, no respect.

Silence fell again and after a few minutes Steve put down his coffee and looked up about to say something when he noticed tony had closed his eyes.

Steve looked at him for a moment before letting his head fall forward, he fell asleep, of course he fell asleep.

It was just Steve's luck to have the kid pass out on his couch.

He was kind of cute when he was asleep though, last time Steve hadn't gotten much of a chance to see it or maybe he hadn't noticed it but he kind of liked seeing it, the way he relaxed and let his shoulders slump as if he wasn't trying to look larger than he actually was.

Steve stopped himself from wondering what he was dreaming about because he wasn't a love sick sap never had been never will be, never wanted to be.

Instead of thinking about it, he went to change the dishcloth for a real bandage and wondered if it would involve blood every time he met tony.

Then he realized he was thinking about meeting tony more.

Damn it.


	12. Chapter 12

Tony rose from dreamless sleep slowly, his body was relaxed and languid under the warm thick blankets and the sun was peeking through the curtains just enough to make itself known but not enough to be annoying.

As his brain started to slowly kick off the cobwebs of sleep, he recognized something warm was behind him, something really warm.

Like furnace warm but in a good way.

It kept his muscles loose and his mind bleary, made sleep tug at his eyelids and he so wanted to give in, it wasn't usual for him to be this comfortable and warm and usually when he woke up he couldn't go back to sleep even if he tried.

Being a genius sometimes had its disadvantages.

So he wanted to take full advantage of the feeling for as long as possible, with that thought in mind he tugged the blankets closer around himself and snuggled deeper into the bed, slowly inhaling the smell of cordite and pine as that warmth got closer.

His brain suddenly came back online and put the pieces together only a moment before a strong arm draped over Tony's side and pulled him in.

Blinking heavily tony looked behind him as a face pressed against his neck and saw Steve's blonde hair as his brain reminded him that he had apparently fallen asleep in the blonde's apartment the night before.

But, he was positive it had been on the couch...

How did he get into the mans bed?

There was a sleepy mumble from behind him before Steve pressed in closer, face pressed into Tony's neck breath tickling the short hairs on his nape, arm wrapped tight around Tony's chest and one of Steve's legs sliding between Tony's pulling them flush together.

And then tony noticed the way the man was shifting in his sleep and tony knew he was asleep because his breathing was slow and steady.

Steve was shifting in his sleep so his half-hard dick was rubbing against the crease of his ass in a way that really shouldn't feel that nice, just the lazy roll of his hips in that sleepy unhurried fashion.

Tony could honestly say, sleepy morning sex was something he didn't have experience in not because it didn't interest him but because his previous relationships had never spent the night with him and visa versa.

Not because he didn't want to or didn't want them to it was just...

That train of thought required too much brainpower for someone that had a smoking hot Adonis rubbing up against them and lipping at the back of their neck.

Whatever the man was dreaming tony would put his trust fund on it being pretty fucking hot, or maybe it was some pretty hot fucking, either way he wasn't about to complain.

The hand on his chest moved fingers tangling and clenching in his shirt tugging him in closer and tighter to his chest, as warm as a furnace and as solid as brick, he'd be damned if he wasn't getting turned on himself.

Steve didn't have a habit of dreaming, at least not that he could remember but at the moment he was having a very amazing not to mention vivid dream about someone in his bed, he didn't know who it was just that they had cold feet and soft dark hair that smelled surprisingly sweet.

They also had a nice firm ass that was pressed up pretty close to his dick.

He pulled the warm soft sweet smelling thing closer to his body his hand clenching in their shirt as he started lipping at the back of their neck.

Absently he thought that he could get off like this, just lazily pressing his hips against their ass in a lazy roll, Steve hadn't had many opportunities in his life where morning sex was an option, and he could literally count them on one hand.

That's not to say he never wanted to, to take advantage of the warmth and the fuzzy feeling in his brain, to just lay there and bask afterwards and enjoy the closeness.

Maybe Bucky had a point about all his teasing about him being a romantic.

Either way the person in his bed, who he suddenly realized was tony, was starting to press back against him so his morning was about to take a turn for the better.

"Hell of a way to wake up" he said his voice rough with sleep before pulling the neck of his shirt to the side to bite at the younger man's shoulder.

His shiver made Steve grin lazily.

Steve's voice and the press of his lips to Tony's shoulder made him shiver and his dick twitch.

This wasn't how he was planning on his morning to go but he wasn't about to complain about it, again who would? The man was a fucking Adonis.

"you started it" he replied before shivering when the man sucked a bruise on the back side of his shoulder where he had pulled Tony's shirt away from his skin.

He stopped for a moment before pressing in closer lying almost cheek-to-cheek and making tony realize how much bigger Steve's frame was compared to his own.

"Do you want me to finish it?"

Who the fuck would say no to that?!

When tony both heard and felt the man's rumble of a chuckle he realized he said that aloud.

Damn it.

"lay on your stomach" he rumbled as he slid away and tony did as ordered for once, he also kicked off his pants while he was at it after all he liked being helpful.

Especially when it came to getting laid.

Steve smirked as he watched the younger man wiggle out of his pants, his boxers were bright candy apple red and the seams were yellow and for some reason he found it incredibly amusing in the five seconds he wasn't dropping his own pants and boxers and grabbing the lube from his bedside table, which was his original intentions.

His mind was still bleary from just waking up but he didn't honestly care, he knew he wasn't dreaming and that tony was more than willing to let him have his way and that was all that really mattered at the moment.

Well that and the dull ache between his legs.

Steve settled himself between Tony's legs spreading them a bit further with his knees before settling and laying his hand on the young man's back he slip his palm upwards feeling the young man's skin flex as he pushed his shirt up.

Using his other hand Steve hooked two fingers into the waistband of Tony's underwear and pulled them down over the swell of his ass.

If nothing else, he did have a truly magnificent ass.

Steve leaned down; sliding his hand over Tony's back to trail his fingertips down his side while biting into his supple flesh to leave a bruise, ass like that needed claimed his sleepy mind told him.

Tony didn't seem to have any qualms with it judging by his squeak and aborted thrust.

When his fingers brushed over skin that was slightly rougher than the rest of him Steve paused for a moment, instantly recognizing the feel of scar tissue.

He wondered if he should ask for a moment but shook it off; it wasn't any of his business even if the idea of someone putting a scar on tony pissed him off to no end.

He would consider that thought more when he didn't have the young man wiggling below him.

Tony felt Steve pause on the old scar just below his ribs and groaned to himself, the story behind that scar was one he really didn't want to get into while horny.

He was grateful when instead of asking the man moved on, moving his hand to Tony's hip and lifting his hips so his ass was in the air, he moved his hands down from there to grab and kneed his ass cheeks for a moment before parting them.

Absently he thought Steve being an ass man was kind of ironic just before he felt something brush against his hole that definitely wasn't a finger.

He jumped in surprise but Steve's hands kept him in place, head buried in the pillows with his ass in the air and Steve's face buried between the cheeks.

Steve's tongue licking and teasing at the muscle prodding ocasinally and at the same time shocking the hell out of tony.

After they slept together, the first time Tony's mind had become curious one night when bored by his schoolwork and projects so he had googled gay sex.

One of the things he hadn't gotten around to looking up because his dick had ached too much had been being eaten out.

He now wished he had looked it up.

He shivered when Steve prodded at him again moaned when he sucked.

"You're thinking too much," Steve mumbled before going back to the tempo of licking and sucking.

Meanwhile he slicked the fingers of one hand "not my fault" tony started to say before breaking off into a moan as Steve licked past the fluttering rim of muscle and tasted him.

His hips tried to flex again but Steve held him down before pulling away replacing his tongue with his fingers, pressing two in and thrusting them lazily.

"Fuck" tony whispered making Steve smirk and lazily drag his fingers over his prostate "eventually" he replied.

For a few minutes, he kept that slow drag of his fingers inside of the man, taking his time and stretching him as tony let out little whimpers and moans "please", he whined when Steve finally added a third making the older man smirk.

He didn't say anything just pulled out his fingers so he could roll on the condom he grabbed before slicking it up.

His cock gave a painful throb in retaliation for ignoring it but he just wiped his hand on the bed sheets that had been shoved out of the way before putting his hand back on Tony's hip.

He lined himself up to that beautifully gaping hole and paused for only a moment to consider that thought before pressing in slowly and continuously.

Stopping only when he bottomed out and tony moaned while arching his back.

Absently he admitted he did make a pretty picture like this but that thought disappeared when the young man clenched around him.

Tony whimpered as Steve slowly slid out and then back in with a lazy roll of his hips, while the slow drag of skin felt amazing tony wanted it fast and hard like last time, this slow grind had too much feeling behind it.

Way too much for someone who's last name he didn't even know.

But at the same time, the sleepy lazy pace was fucking perfect, the man's cock pushing against his prostate on each slow glide and that grind at the end of each slow thrust; it was enough that he knew it would drive him insane.

Already his fingers were clenching in the bed sheets on either side of his head, Steve was leaning over him his body covering Tony's so each thrust made their bodies glide over each other, his larger hands pressed into the bed on either side of tony.

While it looked like they were caging him in tony actually never felt more free, it was a thought that gave him pause and caused him to loosen up enough that this slide was quicker than the last hitting his prostrate directly.

Then again, maybe Steve just thought he was thinking too much again and did it on purpose.

He wouldn't put it past the bastard.

But that one thrust made his speed pick up and that liquid warmth that had been slowly gathering in Tonys belly started to spread and grow heavy.

He was panting into the pillow when one of Steve's hands reached out turning his head enough he could lean down and capture his lips in a kiss that was mostly tongue and teeth.

Tony wasn't complaining.

Steve loved how it only took a touch for tony to respond to him, a nudge from Steve's knee to make his spread his legs a hand on his hip to keep him still a touch to his chin to make him turn his head for a kiss.

It all went straight to his dick and made his already fuzzy skull feel lightheaded.

If he wasn't distracted, he would be concerned about that reaction but at the moment, all he cared about was getting him to cum and in turn cum himself, after all, he was a gentleman like that.

Not pulling his lips away he moved and wrapped his arm around Tony's chest encouraging him to raise to his hands and knees enough that he could get ahold of his cock and stroke it in time to his thrusts.

Tony let out a sharp breath and his back arched muscles going tense in the telltale sign that he was getting close, Steve had mostly been ignoring it but he knew that he wouldn't be far behind.

So he gave a long stroke, flicking his thumb over the head of his cock just as he rammed back in and hit the young man's prostate dead on.

"Oh fuck" the younger man cried out throwing his head back as his release covered Steve's hand.

He buried his head into the sheets and clenched his hands as he rode it out, muscles fluttering around Steve's aching cock.

Steve bent down to suck at Tony's shoulder against while snapping his hips, one twice, three more times before his balls tightened and with a grunt, he let go.

Once the aftershocks settled and his hips stilled their tiny aborted thrusts he felt suddenly sleepy again and fell to the side pulling tony with him who went without much protest.

Steve had never been a cuddler no matter what his friends said fuck you Bucky, but then again he'd never had much of a chance to figure out if he actually was or not.

To be honest maybe it was his sleepy relaxed brain high on endorphins from a fresh fuck or maybe it was just the warmth but once he pulled off the condom and whipped his hand on the sheets it was actually really comfortable to mold his body to Tony's and just lay there and doze.

But it wasn't cuddling.

He didn't cuddle.

He was cuddling him.

That was the first coherent thought tony had after they had settled and his blood flow started to reoxygenate his brain.

He honestly didn't peg the man for a cuddler; he thought he'd be more of a roll over and smoke a cigarette type of guy.

Then again, the warmth did feel nice and the endorphins did make him sleepy and about five seconds after he settled back against Steve's warm chest he wondered what the fuck he was doing.

Tony didn't even know this guy's last name and yet here he was willingly settling down to sleep with him at his back.

Correction, going back to sleep with him at his back after having fallen asleep the night before.

Then again Steve had saved him the night before from getting the crap beat out of him, speaking of his nose ached dully so he knew he was gonna be bruised.

Speaking of the man, his breathing had settled back to those slow deep breaths that meant he was asleep.

Slowly as not to wake him up again tony slipped slowly out of his grasp and then slipped out of the bed.

His legs tingled slightly and his muscles ached but he didn't mind it too much and shuffle walked toured the bathroom trying to be quiet as not to wake him up.

Once his bladder was empty, he stood there, looked in the mirror at his rumpled appearance, and raked a hand through his hair.

It didn't help.

If anything, it made his hair stand up more.

It along with the bruising from his nose being nearly broken the night before made him looks even more homeless than one of his regular week long benders where he lived on protein bars and caffeine.

First think in the morning tony had never cared much about his looks, he'd always cared more about coffee and since he had some thinking to do about his current mental health coffee sounded excellent.

Leaving the bathroom and only wearing his shirt from the night before he walked into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee.

Once it was finished gurgling happily he pulled down a mug and filled it to the brim holding it between his hands, letting it warm them as he inhaled the tantalizing aroma, he had always loved coffee even since he discovered it at the age of nine years old.

It also helped him focus, why the hell was he so at ease standing there? Why had he been relaxed enough to be willing to go to sleep with a thief at his back? A man who had no qualms with beating the shit out of some guys only a few hours ago?

He could shrug off falling asleep the night before on the adrenaline rush of being attacked wearing off.

Tony also had to consider the first time they met, he'd been on the run from the cops, using him so he didn't go to jail, but then was almost tender in bandaging his hands, and of course, he could shrug that off as him doing it just to get into Tony's pants.

But if he was being honest he had started that and the guy didn't kick him out the morning after, even acknowledged him and gave him coffee.

Being completely honest with himself he had no idea what was going on and being confused annoyed him, he didn't like not knowing something like this, after all why the hell would Steve save him and bring him back to his home, again, then take care of him and where had that cut on his hand come from?

It hadn't been there when they got to the apartment or when he helped tony stop his nose from bleeding.

For the love of God, the guy even had a handkerchief with his initials on it!

The guy had been really sweet for a criminal but tony knew there was more to him than that and there was so much he didn't know.

For all he knew he could have been putting himself in some serious danger by being there.

Speaking of he suddenly felt a presence behind him then heard something click by his left ear, he'd been so distracted by his thoughts he hadn't even registered someone entering the apartment.

Damn it.

"Who the fuck are you and what are you doing here"

He turned his head slowly to see an older man with dark hair leering at him and a dark gun pointing at his face.

Tony wanted to make some snappy comeback maybe ask him the same thing but his brain kind of shut down, the only think he could think to say was "you're the one from that drawing"

The man who he noticed only had one arm rose a brow at him face staying otherwise unreadable before suddenly he lowered the gun and looked vaguely amused "you're the one he's fucking? What play pen did he steal you from?"

Tony puffed up in indignation and glared at the nameless man.

Bucky went to Steve's apartment to discuss a new job Barton had gotten the lead on, when he found the man's living room empty, he rose a brow but just assumed he was sleeping in.

Not that it was a common occurrence but his best friend was occasionally known to hit the snooze button on his mental alarm from time to time.

When he saw a dark haired man leaning against the counter in the kitchen area like he owned the place drinking Steve's favorite coffee that was hard as hell to track down because it was from Germany he acted on instinct

He pulled his gun from the holster in the back of his jeans and leveling it on the man just as he realized he wasn't alone.

The only answer he got to his question was the man's head turning to look at him with wide eyes, his hair was a tangled mop of ebony bed head and his face was bruised in a way that only came from a broken or nearly broken nose.

Moreover, he looked fucking young.

When he said something about a drawing, it confused him and made him take another look at him.

Realizing he was wearing only a pair of briefs and his shirt, with kiss swelled lips it didn't take Bucky long to figure out who the kid was.

He couldn't help making fun of the kid's age when he spoke his realization aloud and that seemed to knock the kid out of his surprise as he puffed up and glared.

It was kind of cute if he was being honest in a kid playing with a puppy sort of way "I'm not a kid for fucks sake I'm 22!"

"You don't fucking look it" the kid glared again and Bucky just smirked.

He was a little spitfire he'd give him that.

No wonder Steve liked him more than he was willing to admit.

Maybe more than he wanted to admit to himself.


	13. Chapter 13

Steve felt his bed shift and opened one eye to watch as tony tried to leave it without waking him, little did the kid know Steve was never actually asleep.

He really needed to learn the difference between when someone's asleep and when someone's just relaxing.

Not moving he watched tony slip into the bathroom for a minute before slipping out of the room in just a shirt and boxers before rolling onto his back.

Steve sprawled out and heaved a heavy sigh as he stared at the ceiling; he hadn't been planning on them sleeping together when he brought tony into his room the night before.

To be honest one of the only reasons he brought tony into his room had been because he felt guilty leaving him on the couch, honestly he should have known it was going to happen though, after that dream and waking up with the center of it pressed against his body, it was bound to happen.

The problem was he was too relaxed about it.

Usually he hated having strangers in his space and truth be told tony was a stranger, he wasn't one of his friends and apparently he wasn't a one night stand either because he now knew where Steve lived.

Steve reached up and raked his hair back out of his face closing his eyes in annoyance, what the fuck was he doing? Tony was like five years younger than him and someone he used to escape the cops.

Why the fuck did he bring him home? So what if he had eyes that reminded Steve of a puppy and really soft black hair and stubble that tickled when he...

"Fuck" he said realizing just how deep he was.

"What the fuck" he thought annoyed while rolling onto his stomach and into the space tony had been occupying "I slept with him twice, how the hell did I get attached? For all I know the kid could be a undercover cop trying to bust my ass"

He actually seriously doubted he was a cop, tony was too young to have graduated the police academy, but the point still stood and why the hell was he ok with letting the kid walk around his apartment unsupervised? Not even all of his friends knew where he lived, he was more protective of his address than Natasha was and she barely told them anything.

The only one that knew where she lived was Barton and that was probably because they lived together or something, he could never figure those two out.

"Then again" he thought propping his chin on his crossed arms, tony had asked about his art, his secret pleasure, and he was pretty sure as an engineer the guy was smart enough to put two and two together to come up with thief when they first met.

He hadn't been more than a little twitchy and had acted happy to see him again, then again that was probably because Steve had saved his ass from being mugged and he'd probably really wanted his shirt back.

Damn thing was probably vintage with as worn out as it looked.

Steve sighed heavily again, he was giving himself a headache thinking about it all.

Closing his eyes he took a deep breath and held it for a minute before stretching, it felt surprisingly good and when he huffed the breath back out and his body went slack he felt like he could go back to sleep.

He even wanted to, feeling lazy like a cat in the sun but didn't get a chance to put his idea of napping into action because someone spoke in his kitchen that wasn't tony.

Steve was up and in the doorway of the kitchen in only a minute or two and when he saw who it was standing there he had to huff, especially since tony looked like an angry bird all puffed up the way he was.

Wait, did he put pants on? Glancing down he was mildly relieved to see he had indeed pulled on sleeping pants before leaving his room, not that it would have mattered Bucky had seen him naked more than once.

"Don't give the kid a heart attack buck, he had a rough night"

Bucky turned to look at Steve as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a cup of the coffee tony had made "oh I'm sure he did"

Glancing back at his best friend who was smirking he had to roll his eyes "what's with his face?" Bucky asked, "Like I said rough night" Steve shrugged and sipped the coffee.

Shit, it was strong!

He wasn't sure his hair didn't start curling after tasting it.

Steve's sudden appearance in the door way made tony jump and look at him, nearly spilling his coffee, he then looked at the guy Bucky when he said something about his face making him remember the bruising.

"It doesn't look that bad" he rolled his eyes as he said it "oh it looks like your face got smashed into a wall" Bucky replied making tony glare at him for a moment before glancing away "well it kind of did"

From the corner of his eye he caught movement and saw Steve drinking some of the coffee he had made, the man blinked hard and widened his eyes before letting out a cough.

The man put the cup down and tony couldn't help smirking as the man pointed at him with his bandaged hand "never make coffee again" he said.

Tony turned to face him and grinned innocently "it's not that strong" he said and took a sip of his own cup as Steve glared at him in a mock threat "bullshit" he said

"It's not my fault you can't handle caffeine, besides I'm in collage I need the kick"

From where he'd been skulking the dark haired Bucky spoke up again "collage? I thought you were homeless"

"Only on the weekends" he snipped at the man who shook his head slightly before looking at Steve "so I need to talk to you about, work" he paused while glancing at tony who fought against rolling his eyes.

He resisted but only barely and felt very grown up because of it "let me find my pants and I'll be out of here so you can talk 'business" he put down the coffee cup to make the parentheses marks with his hands, because he was literally five years old.

From where he stepped into the bedroom he heard Steve speak "beside the dresser"

Tony looked found his pants and grinned to himself "thanks" he called back and grabbed his shoes pulling them on and grabbing his bag and cellphone off the coffee table before moving to the door.

He stopped when Steve called his name and looked back "yeah?" he questioned and the man smirked at him "avoid alleys for a while, your face could use a break"

Tony shook his head "smart ass" but he grinned as he left.

Maybe he should use dark alleys more often.


	14. Chapter 14

Once the door closed behind tony Steve looked up and sighed, "Don't look at me like that buck"

His best friend looked at him with hard and disbelieving eyes "ok ignoring the fact that he knows where you live, something I only know because I had to carry you here after you got shot on a job, you told him what you do?"

"I didn't tell him shit Bucky, he figured it out on his own" he walked toured his room to get dressed "how? He doesn't look that smart" Steve sighed deeply "maybe because when I met him I was running from the cops and looked like a burglar?"

Bucky came and stood in the door of the room "and that doesn't seem even mildly suspicious to you?"

Steve looked back at his friend from where he stood looking at his clothing looking for something clean, he needed to do laundry soon.

"What seems suspicious?"

Bucky rolled his eyes "the fact that you were running from the cops and ran into him, just walking down the street, in the middle of the night, on a school night?"

Steve tried really hard not to sigh out loud and instead looked toured the ceiling huffing as his shoulders slumped "ok first of all" he turned around to walk toured his friend "he's not that young, second of all I think I'm smart enough to spot a undercover cop"

And third of all Steve had already been thinking that thank you very much Bucky.

His best friend snorted at him and put his hand on his hip "first of all like you can't lie about your age, and second are you sure that isn't getting in the way" Bucky pointed toured his crotch.

Steve frowned brow furrowing slightly "Bucky" he couldn't believe his best friend was even suggesting that, Bucky rose his hand in surrender and sighed "I just don't want to see anything happen to you Steve, your my best friend" Steve quirked his lips slightly and huffed a little.

He realized his best friend was just being protective of him, watching his back the way he always did and he was sure if Bucky started sleeping with someone he wouldn't act much different.

Reaching out Steve put his hand on his best friends shoulder and gave it a squeeze "I get it I really do buck, hell you're the closest thing I've had to family in a long time, your my brother but remember who you're talking to"

Steve grinned and punched his shoulder "if anything happens I can handle it" Steve left his room for the bathroom and Bucky sighed again "I know exactly who I'm talking to, no you can't you soft hearted fool"

He left the room to get a cup of coffee and wait for Steve to come out so they could discuss their next job, supposedly Natasha had found them a good one this time.

Taking a sip from the pot his brows rose, whatever this guy's game was at least he could make good coffee.

Tony was walking down the sidewalk in silence biting at his lip before reaching for his cellphone and calling the second speed dial number.

It rang three times and tony was about to hang up when the call connected "what did you do" a man asked and tony made a face "is that any way to great your best friend honey bear?"

The man on the other side of the line one James 'Rodney rode's sighed "hi tony it's good to hear from you know what did you do and is it going to require military sanctions"

Tony puffed up slightly "that happened one time"

"Twice" tony pouted.

After a minute he heard a sigh "what's wrong, tones" he asked and tony looked off to the side "jeez nothing's wrong platypus, I just wanted to know if you wanted to hang out, I heard you were in town"

"Ok where are you now?" Rodney asked after a moment and tony huffed "on the way home" there was a pause then "your skipping class today?" he asked and tony rolled his eyes "it's just chemistry, I passed it last year"

Silence again, tony watched the people around him as he walked down the street, it was just another day after all "alright, meet you at your place?" Rodney finally said and tony smiled slightly "sounds like a plan" he said then hung up.

No more than ten minutes after tony got home and discovered his father gone, happy left a note saying the man was on a business trip, did Rodney pull up in the drive way.

Tony was waiting for him in the kitchen and grinned the moment he saw his best friend who took one look at him before going all mama bear on him "what happened to your face?" he demanded and tony could already see the man planning murder in his head.

Waving his best friend off as he got closer to look at his bruising, he couldn't help smiling glad the man cared about him "relax honey bear, I got jumped is all, couple guys smashed my face into a wall"

All that did was reroute his best friend's anger instead of disposing of it "who?" he demanded and Tony's lips curved down on one side as he gave the man an unimpressed look.

Rodney realized how stupid that question was and sighed, "So how did you get out of that situation?" tony looked down at his coffee

"I ran into a guy a few nights before after a fight with my old man he helped me out" tony picked at his nails "last night I was on the way back from the lab, they jumped me and the guy showed up and kicked their asses"

He glanced up at Rodney and smirked a little "it was pretty awesome to watch" Rodney rose a brow at him and crossed his arms "so this guy just so happens to decide to help you then a couple days later you get mugged and he magically shows up again"

Tony rolled his eyes as he kept talking "Seems a little to knight in shining armor set up to me"

"come on rode's I'm not an idiot, he doesn't even know who I am" Rodney scowled slightly then sighed "I know better than to argue with you tony but be careful, I don't Wanna have to save your butt again"

He couldn't help smirking at Rodney "relax Rodney it's not like I'm gonna ask him out for coffee" that made his best friend snort and return his smirk "at least you're not doing that" if he was any more sarcastic tony would be jealous.

Leaving that conversation behind he and Rodney decided to just, hang out, it had been a long time since they got the chance and tony had missed his best friend something awful, it looked like Rodney could use a break to, since he joined the air force he'd been pretty busy but it was like tony always said.

All work and no play made Rodney a stick in the mud.

Rodney didn't find that it amusing.

Pepper knew he wasn't going to show up for chemistry, no matter how much she told him advanced chemistry wasn't the same as the class he took the year before but he never listened to her.

At least Doctor Pym never seemed to notice his absences and so long as tony showed up for the tests he was fine but it still annoyed her to no end.

Then again, it was tony half the time she felt more like his personnel assistant than his friend but it was worth it sometimes because she did love him like a brother.

An annoying younger brother she never wanted but still a brother.

Therefore, when someone sat down next to her in Tony's seat pepper was surprised and looked up to see the red head tony had nearly bowled over not so long ago.

Rising her brows when the woman just sat there for a minute she felt curiosity getting the better of her "umm hi" she started and the redhead looked at her before smirking slowly and looking forward again.

"I need a favor," she said and pepper tilted her head in confusion "ok" she asked slowly "what do you want?" the red heads lips twitched into a slightly larger smirk.

"Coffee"


	15. Chapter 15

Barton wanted to talk to them about a small electronics shop on the south side of the market district right across the street from it was a small dinner where they were currently at.

At first, Steve wanted to blow it off because he scouted the place but all he saw was an old shop with a very old shopkeeper.

The computers looked like relics even to him.

"What's so special about this place?" Steve questioned his friend from the table they had outside the dinner, which was more the size of a food stall, squeezed in the way it was between a discount-clothing store and a bookshop, most of their customers were seated outside so they had room for their cooking equipment.

Barton leaned forward on the table "that's what I thought when I saw it to, been in there a few times and most of the shits covered in dust"

He made a hand gesture to encompass just how much dust "they hardly move anything outside of the occasional circuit board, but Nat scouted the place, said there was a back room even saw some guys come and go from there, she also got a look at the books"

Bucky and Steve glanced at each other knowing better than the question how she got a peek at them "let me guess" Bucky said and leaned forward "the numbers don't add up?" he questioned

Barton grinned at them both before shoving his hands into the pocket of his purple hoodie "exactly, the place is either a black market front or it's a new fence because the abnormalities start about two years ago"

Drumming his fingers lightly on the table Steve bit the inside of his lip "why isn't Natasha doing it herself?" he questioned and watched his friend shrug from the corner of his eye "don't know all she told me was that she was working on a different job and that it might take a while"

Steve hummed, he was sure she was planning something that woman always was, but he didn't know if he should be worried about it or not.

Honestly, he probably should be but so long as she didn't do something to get them caught, which she would never do, he didn't really give a shit.

"We'll watch it for a few days find out what kind of security they have, see if we can avoid a repeat of a few weeks ago" Steve looked at Barton as he said this which made the man roll his eyes "come on boss, Nat planned this one out, there's nothing to worry about"

Steve barely resisted rolling his eyes "Buck see what you can dig u on this place, possible connections make sure we aren't doing something that'll get us shot at, ask Nat for her information if you can find her"

He turned to look at Barton "you keep an eye on the place, use the cameras" Steve rose his gaze to glance at the three cameras he had spotted "if you need to put out some new ones, see if there's another entrance in case it is black market see who were robbing"

"Does it matter if its black market" Clint asked and stove just raised one brow at the man "I'll take that as a yes"

"What are you going to do" Bucky asked as Steve stood up "get some decent coffee" was his only reply as he walked away toured a coffee shop a few blocks away.

He had to get the taste of that sludge this morning out of his mouth maybe sit in the corner and relax for a while after all he could use the break.

Tony loved pepper, really he did.

The woman had gotten him out of some tough situations, made sure he didn't spend to look in his workshop, made sure he didn't fight too much with his father.

Truly, he loved her like a sister he never had but sometimes she could be a huge pain in the ass.

like right now, he and Rhodey had been planning to marathon old horror movies on Tony's big screen but no, she had called Rhodey and convinced the man tony actually needed to come pick up notes and homework from that days chemistry class, Pym was planning another test, big surprise.

She even convinced Rhodey that tony needed to attend his math class that night.

He knew pepper just had his wellbeing in mind, like always, but couldn't the homework have waited until after the movies?

At least she bought him coffee at that place not far from campus before her next class.

He wanted to go home and watch movies with Rhodey but pepper made him promise to do the work so he took a seat at one of the tables in the back of the little coffee hut and started on his work.

So distracted by his complaining was he that tony didn't even notice the other person taking refuge in the back corner of the seating area.

His back to the wall and lounging back into a blue padded chair a blonde sat enjoying the silence and smell of coffee even if he didn't drink it that much.

Steve's silence in the back corner of that coffee shop was disturbed by someone's complaining.

Looking up he found someone sitting at the table nearest him, it took him a minute to recognize the tanned skin and the dark hair, the warm brown eyes skimming across the pages of some kind of textbook.

"You have to be fucking kidding me" Steve muttered to himself, it didn't seem like the man had noticed him in his little corner, he was partly turned away and scribbling something on some papers.

What Bucky had said about the kid being an undercover cop nudged at the back of his mind for a minute making him glance at the door for a minute before shaking it off and standing up.

He walked over to Tony's table and stood across from where he was sitting, Steve crossed his arms and raised a brow at the young man before speaking "are you following me"

Tony jolted slightly and his pen fell from his hand, he looked up with a scowl to see who was talking to him and then he blinked in surprise "Steve? What are you" the question registered after a moment and he shook his head "what, no, the coffee here's good and it's like a 20 minute walk to campus"

He jabbed his thumb in the general direction of his collage "why are you following me?" he remembered Rhodey's warning but the look on Steve's face put his mind at ease "no I've got a" he trailed off slightly like he was searching for the right word.

"Job" it wasn't the word he was looking for but it was close enough "not far from here, this was the closest place to get a little peace and quiet"

The young man rose one of his brows and his lips twitched slightly "should I be worried?" he questioned and Steve rubbed his jaw to hide a smirk before pulling out on of the chairs to sit down which tony said nothing about "not unless you own killian electronics"

When tony made a face like he tasted something bitter it peaked Steve's curiosity "what?" he questioned "I checked that shop out a few years ago, pretty sure the old guy behind the counter was insane, I mean he's got a lot of old circuit boards and fuses that aren't produced anymore"

Tony leaned back in his seat and stretched out his legs "place is a wet dream come true for people that restore old towers, it's come in handy a couple times when I needed some weird ass part from the eighties for my systems, but nothing there is worth the armed guard watching the million cameras"

He reached out for his drink but paused before it touched his lips "half of which aren't hooked up or don't work" Steve made a mental note to inform Barton of that before leaning forward to pop his arms on the table with the papers spread out on top of it with some kind of gibberish on them.

"unless you want to become an accessory to a crime I would stop talking" he said before picking up one of the papers with numbers symbols letters and diagrams jotted down on it "what is this?" he questioned curiosity getting the better of him.

Steve knew he should probably get up and leave, find something else to do or just go back to his corner but he couldn't quite make himself get up, he told himself it was just because he wanted to know what the young man was doing and not because he was getting attached.

Tony perked his brows looking at the scratch paper the man had picked up "just scribbles, as extra credit for my class my professor challenged me to write a paper comparing newton's laws of physics to the laws of thermal dynamics"

He picked up his coffee to take a drink "basically saying ones better than the other" Steve put down the paper "do you need the extra credit?" he asked which made tony snort "I have the highest score in the class"

Steve rolled his eyes wondering if he could brag any more "then why do it?" tony opened his mouth to speak but then paused thinking for a minute before shrugging "it makes me think"

"So you're writing a paper on some pretty advanced shit for the hell of it?" Steve leaned back like tony was "you're a teacher's pet aren't you?" tony made a face vaguely offended before he saw the man smirking an knew he was fucking with him "shut up" he muttered before staring at his half-finished essay.

Silence filled the space between them for a few minutes and neither of them saw a reason to break it, Steve because he was enjoying the silence eyes slowly scanning the inside of the shop before returning to tony who was biting his lip lightly.

Tony didn't break it because he was trying to find a way to ask something until he glanced up to find Steve looking at him and decided fuck it and started gathering his papers.

"I have a math class in an hour or so and there's a pizzeria not far from here, want to split one?" he asked focusing on putting everything into his backpack, Steve was amused at the way the younger man couldn't look up at him when he asked that.

He knew he should say no, he should go home and stay as far away from the young man as possible but it was just a pizza it wasn't as if they were dating or anything.

"Well it depends" he started slowly making tony look up "on what?" he questioned and Steve let his lips pull into a half grin "you paying?"

Tony snorted before he could help himself and slung his bag over his shoulder as he stood up "sure" he agreed.

Across the street from the coffee hut, Natasha was watching them through the window and smirking before walking away.

This was going just like she planned it, she would have to find a way to thank pepper for getting the man-child to the coffee place.

Natasha hummed as she disappeared between the few people still walking about, maybe she could get the woman coffee and they could further discuss Natasha's plan.

This was shaping up to be a very good week.


	16. Chapter 16

Tony's formally not bad day was shaping up to be a very bad week, not that it had anything to do with getting pizza with Steve that had actually gone pretty well.

Tony had been surprised when the man had eaten nearly an entire pizza by himself but hadn't said anything about it after a few faint snickers.

I had actually been, well...

Fun.

Like hanging out with Rhodey, or pepper on the rare occasion she wasn't doing anything and agreed to a movie night.

So no, that wasn't where his week started to take a turn for the shitty.

It started easily enough with his latest AI experiment failing, which he had been expecting to happen but still sucked, next the deadline on all of his assignments had been moved forward and then his father came back from his business trip.

Sure, the man wasn't so bad when he was sober, tony had gotten use to his constant air of disapproval and disappointment when he was 12, so mostly he just ignored the man who did the same with him to the most part just as he had always done since tony was five.

Since Howard was back that also meant happy was back so what little time tony had to spare was filled up with telling the man that no he did not need an armed guard to school and the guy that did that to his face had been taken care of.

He wasn't really complaining though tony kind of enjoyed the fact that happy cared about him so much, and what did it say that happy was more of a father to him then his actual father?

Maybe it was because they were paying him.

Anyway, his bad week came to a head when he was in the middle of another extra credit paper this time for his science class, he lost track of time and was still sitting in the kitchen nursing coffee and writing when his father's happy hour started.

He could hear the drunken stumbling of his father from the end of the hall and it was the ghost throb of his hands and the sting of his face from their last altercation that made him jump up from his seat.

He gathered up his work and shoved it all into his backpack figuring he could sort it all out again later and shoved it out of harm's way.

Moving away from the counter he went to the coffee machine just as his father's drunk voice slurred his name.

It was close enough he was mildly surprised and had to look up at the man currently standing in the kitchen door way, his hair was messy like he'd been running his hands through it, a quirk tony himself had inherited, and his tie was crooked, his face was mildly flushed and his eyes mildly unfocused.

"Hey old man, what's the occasion" tony motioned toured the bottle in the man's hand which made him drink from it as if remembering it was there "I don't know how I got stuck with you, you're not even my son"

Oh, so that's what the man was starting with.

The words didn't hurt exactly, it was a well-known fact that tony had been adopted after his parents last failed attempt at having a child , if only to have someone to pass the company onto when Howard got too old or lost interest.

If anything now it just made tony roll his eyes "not my fault you couldn't keep it up"

Tony always forgot how fast his father could be when he wanted to be but he was reminded of it when his father backhanded him "Jesus fuck!" he said stumbling back into the counter.

"If it had been up to me we never would have adopted you" rubbing his face tony glared at the man "if it had been up to me I would have rather stayed at the orphanage for someone that actually gave a fuck"

"Get out!" his father shouted red in the face from anger

"With pleasure" he retorted then shoved passed the man making him stumble.

Tony grabbed his bag and left the house making sure the slam the door on the way out.

If he had been a little more cold blooded tony would wish his father got alcohol poisoning but despite popular belief, he wasn't that much of an asshole.

Tony walked to the coffee shop hoping to lose some of his anger but the humidity from the fat low hanging clouds was not helping.

Stepping inside the shop, he moved directly for the back corner and dropped down on the couch beside a recognizable blonde man who didn't even look up from his book.

"Why did I know you were going to show up?" Steve asked no one while tony snorted and put his feet up on the scuffed coffee table in front of him "why are fathers complete and total assholes?" he returned then looked to the side.

"What happened to your hands?" he questioned brow furrowing in confusion at the bruised knuckles "what happened to your face?" Steve returned.

Tony could help touching his face where his cheek felt warm, he hoped it didn't bruise, he really did, otherwise people were going to start asking questions he didn't want to answer "touché" was all he muttered and then silence fell between them.

Steve's week had been pretty normal, he took turns with Barton watching the electronics shop, did a couple small jobs to keep the bills paid and generally pretended the last few half-finished sketches he had tried weren't very close to looking like a certain intelligent young man that made horrible coffee, not that Steve drank much coffee but still.

Anyway, his calm week was ruined when on Thursday he got a call from Bucky.

His friend was saying something about a job and Natasha being jumped and that he needed to get to Jan's, Steve didn't bother trying to tell the man to slow down and instead just went to his bike and rushed to the woman's shop.

He arrived quicker than usual and rushed into the back room, opening the door to see Clint Bucky and Sam the newest member of their little 'gang' all standing around Natasha.

The woman's arm had been bandaged and her red lips had their iconic color not from her lipstick but from the blood on her split lip, she was also hiding half of her face behind something frozen.

Sam, who use to be an army medic, told him the injuries weren't too bad and her arm only had a shallow knife wound , he frowned hard and asked what had happed, Bucky opened his mouth to speak but a Russian word from Natasha had him closing his mouth

"A couple of guys jumped me just after I finished clearing this guy's safe, caught me off guard and stole my haul and my bike"

Steve heard Barton mutter something about honor among thieves which was total bullshit, everyone was out for his or herself in this day and age, and rubbed his forehead.

"We know who they are and where?" Bucky nodded once "looks like they stopped at that old chop shop down town" Steve gave a tight nod "time for the captain to pay them a visit?" Clint suggested looking just as pissed as Steve felt.

He nodded at the smaller man and turned on his heel "let's teach them what happens when you fuck with us, buck stay with Nat, you two let's get our shit back"

It didn't take long to arrive at the old chop shop and once they did it looked like the wannabe thieves weren't expecting company, which just proved how entirely stupid they were.

Steve, with anger hot in his veins, reached the garage door that marked the entrance and threw it up; the loud sound it made in protest of the quick movement caught the buildings occupants by surprise.

There were five of them gathered around a table where what looked to be the contents of Natasha's haul had been laid out to be divided among them, it almost looked like they had been in the middle of an argument.

"who the fuck are you?" one of the men started moving toured Steve like he owned the world but Steve was in no mood to deal with it, so he grabbed the back of the man's neck and turned, pulling him to smash his face into the edge of the door.

At the very least the man's nose broke possibly more, but it got the point across "you have something that belongs to us" he said simply.

Everything and everyone was quiet for a few moments and then action seemed to explode from all of them at once.

The man Clint lunged at drew out a knife but it was soon in Clint's possession, the man that tried to tackle Sam was about twice his height and build and was trying to brawl with him, even managed to throw Sam over the table but the smaller man recovered quickly.

And of course the guy Steve was fighting was some kind of ninja or something, he kept flipping and rolled out of the way which really only served to pissed Steve off more, so when the guy leapt onto Steve's back he had enough, he didn't even think about purposely falling backwards.

The guy grunted, stunned by the impact which let Steve rip him off and pin him down to start punching him in the face, generally using the ninja freak as an outlet for some of his built up anger and annoyance.

Of course, after only a couple of good hits he heard a distinct clicking sound from behind him.

Hearing it made him freeze up, which he knew better than to do but someone had a gun pointed at him so he was pretty sure he had an excuse this time.

Steve glanced back at the person whose face he'd shoved into the doorframe, Steve glared, and then lunged as the man fired, he felt the heat of the bullet but no pain so he guessed it missed.

Not that he paid attention to that as he tackled the man to the ground and finished breaking his nose, because how dare to little fuck wad hold a gun to him.

"Hey boss" Clint said after the guy collapsed barely recognizable as human under the bruises and blood "clean them out" he said vaguely out of breath.

When he turned around Clint was giving him a strange look he only vaguely recognized "did I stutter?" he asked annoyed by it.

Clint held up his hands rolling his eyes and the look disappearing "sure thing man, we just heard a gunshot so" the man trailed off and shrugged and Steve made a quiet huffing sound before walking by the man "so we should hurry, don't worry, he missed"

Barely.

When they returned to the shop having barely missed the cops, Bucky took one look at him and pulled him off to the side "you ok punk" he questioned and Steve sighed slightly crossing his arms and leaned against the wall, his hands ached like he'd gone after a punching bag without gloves which he guessed he kind of had.

"yeah" he said and rubbed his head "I'm just getting to old for this shit" his best friend snorted at him "you're not even 30" he said and Steve rolled his eyes at the man "I froze up, one of those assholes pulled out a gun and I froze" and now he was getting a headache.

"Hey" he looked when Bucky put his hand on Steve's shoulder "it was a close call but it's part of the job, your alive aren't you"

Steve huffed but stayed quiet "why don't you get out of here? Looks like you could use a break"

"Yeah" Steve said quietly and stood up from the wall "call if you guys need me" Bucky shooed him even as he agreed and Steve left with a halfhearted roll of his eyes.

It wasn't that late so he went to that coffee shop for some peace and quiet, he should have known that he wouldn't get it though, that just wasn't how his luck ran.

He noticed the moment tony walked into the coffee shop because apparently he now had some sort of radar for the kid or something.

They traded a couple of sarcastic mostly rhetorical questions and Steve told himself it wasn't concern that tugged at his gut at seeing the red mark on Tony's already abused face.

Of course looking at the young man's face made Steve realize something else, he needed a shave, his usually neat goatee looked a little ragged around the edges and it looked like he hadn't slept in maybe days from the bags under his eyes "stressful day?" he found himself asking even if he didn't want to know.

The younger man snorted "more like week, you?"

Steve copied Tony's snort "something like that" silence fell again and Steve found himself rereading the same paragraph three times before sighing in defeat.

Closing his book he looked at tony that had spread himself out on the couch like a rag doll "Wanna get out of here?" why was he asking? Hadn't Steve wanted to put distance between himself and tony?

Tony looked at him for a moment seeming to consider before smirking in a way that made Steve think tony didn't even realize he was doing it "yes please".


	17. Chapter 17

Tony forgot what it felt like to ride on Steve's bike, the rumbling under his balls the warm body he was pressed close to the back of, the loud thrum of the engine, the wind blowing at his face with the humidity of a storm about the let loose.

It was a feeling he could get use to if he was being honest but he was pretty sure he wouldn't get that chance,

Tony knew what kind of man Steve was, hell he used to be one.

He would get tired of tony eventually and disappear never to be heard from again.

Tony didn't want to focus on how sad that thought actually made him.

Tony was being quiet, at least quieter than usual and Steve guessed it had to do with his father, Steve didn't want to jump to conclusions but he was pretty positive that hand mark on Tony's face came from another argument between them.

He rather hoped tony got a shot of his own off before leaving but was pretty sure he didn't judging by the lack of bruised knuckles, the argument couldn't have been that bad though, and after all tony wasn't bleeding.

Moreover, he still complained about the broken elevator so...

He didn't know, maybe he was just imagining things "stop complaining" he said while unlocking his door "you need the exercise"

"Oh fuck you" the young man said and pushed passed him into his apartment.

What did it say that it amused him more than annoyed him? "Maybe later" he muttered amused as he closed the door and watched tony walk over to his couch.

The young man promptly collapsed on Steve's couch face down and didn't seem to be in any rush to move so Steve let him lay there as he dropped his bag and jacket by the door then walked into the kitchen.

He didn't focus on how it felt like habit, making two drinks instead of one the same way he didn't think about it when his TV turned on in the other room, some movie from the eighties was on but he didn't focus on that either.

"you know" tony called from the living room voice muffled by whatever he was using for a pillow "ten minutes and a computer and I can get you some channels from this century" Steve rolled his eyes as he walked toured the couch.

"and how would you do that?" he asked putting one of the cups down on the coffee table before slumping onto the part of the couch tony wasn't taking up.

The younger man had pillowed his head on his bag and looked at him for a moment before looking back at the black and white movie on the screen "with a computer" Steve blinked slowly unimpressed as tony smirked at him for a minute before speaking again.

"companies want you to believe you need special shit to get the channels they offer the same way people are with cell phone companies, it's the same towers some people just block certain places unless you pay a shit tone of cash" tony turned and stretched out his legs

Steve perked a brow when he settled with them one over Steve's legs and the other shoved behind him between his back and the cushions "it's the same way with TV" he continued probably not even noticing.

"companies say you have to have this dish or that cable or whatever and it's all bullshit" he waved his hand "really all you need is the receiver already in your TV and the right know how" Steve sat back and watched as tony started to explain the entire process to him.

To be honest he didn't understand half of what tony was saying but let him keep talking anyway because it was interesting watching the way he relaxed and waved his hands around to emphasize things.

Like he said, it was interesting and trying to understand what he was saying distracted Steve from his own thoughts.

When tony stopped talking he shook himself and looked at the younger man who had stopped talking and had raised his head from his backpack to look at him one brow risen "you didn't get half of what I just said did you?"

Steve shrugged "you lost me about five minutes ago" tony huffed like he was offended "come on that was the basics" Steve sipped from his mug "I think I'll stick with what I got"

Tony groaned, "What are you ninety" Steve couldn't resist rolling his eyes "depends, are you twelve"

The younger man made a face and took a drink of the coffee Steve made him "only when it counts"

"So all the time"

Tony jabbed him in the side with one foot "shut up" he complained but Steve just snorted and grabbed his leg bringing it back down to his lap.

After that silence fell for a minute tony didn't move his legs and Steve didn't push him away even though he was pretty sure he should, it had just been a long day and despite that voice in the back of his head telling him that he was getting to close growing to attached he didn't care.

He knew he should for the good of both of them but he didn't want to, sue him but he didn't want to at least not yet, he liked the feeling of the younger man being close to him, liked the way he felt and tasted.

Steve was having a hard time seeing a reason not to become attached which if he was being honest he was already attached to tony, the voice in his head told him it was going to hurt, that tony would be in danger and so many other reasons but at the same time he thought that he knew.

Tony knew about his 'job' that he was a criminal and from the way he talked, it seemed like tony was a little bit of a criminal himself.

The younger man asked about his art, no one asked about his art not even his friends.

And Steve wanted so bad just to have this for a little while, now if he'd just let himself have it, if only for a while.

Tony watched as Steve's eyes became distant like he was thinking really hard about something, something he didn't like if the tightness of his mouth and around his eyes was anything to go by.

He watched Steve lean his head back with a sigh and look back to the TV so he didn't catch him staring, not that he thought the man would mind, Steve was well aware of his looks and tony was sure would make some comment lewd or not about tony staring.

After all that's what tony would have done and had done before, it got him smacked and laid in equal measures.

"Deep thoughts?" tony asked after the silence had stretched out for a while pushing himself into a sitting position to look at Steve.

The thief smirked but he doubted there was any humor in it "something like that"

Tony tilted his head slightly then looked down and chewed at his bottom lip for a moment before speaking "you Wanna talk about it?"

Steve seemed mildly surprised that tony asked then again even tony was surprised with himself for a moment.

The older man tilted his head enough to see tony and tony thought he looked tired, not the normal 'hadn't slept enough the night before' tired tony always dealt with because he didn't sleep, no it was more the 'weary of life' tired.

"No" the man started and then pulled until tony was sitting in his lap "I really don't" he finished with a smirk.

Tony knew a distraction when he saw it, he also knew a line when he saw it, the problem was he wanted to cross it and find what was bothering Steve but at the same time he didn't want to because it wasn't like they were dating!

It wasn't his place.

But he wanted it to be and that was the problem.

Fuck...


	18. Chapter 18

To add a dose of strange to whatever it was they were doing instead of sleeping together like normal, they just made out for a little while.

That's not saying tony would have refused if they kept going because the slide of lips together, the battle of tongues, the feeling of Steve's large hands rhythmically squeezing Tony's thighs, it was a perfect opportunity to, at least, trade blowjobs.

But when their make out session tapered off to a natural end they just, didn't.

Believe it or not they stayed sitting like that, tony in Steve's lap with his head on the older man's shoulder and Steve with his fingers linked behind Tony's back and his head leaned back on the couch, until they got hungry and then they ordered pizza.

Not that there was anything wrong with that but tony just found it weird, really fucking weird.

Weirder when they started talking about stupid shit, like tony was complaining about his school and Steve was grumbling about his friends and all the hell they put him through starting from vague descriptions of old robberies they misinformed him about to the more recent prank wars that only he ever seemed to suffer from.

More than once tony broke out laughing and received a punch in the shoulder.

When the pizza was gone and both men had calmed down from the most recent tale of a prank gone bad that ended with a ruined painting and blue skin all around for a week even Steve had to laugh about the older looked at the clock and found it was surprisingly late.

The tension that had leaked out of Steve's body over the last three or so hours returning with a vengeance, he knew exactly why it was too, but he refused to think about that instead standing up and grabbing the empty pizza box to throw away.

"it's getting late" he said moving into the kitchen "and I need to be up early, last minute prep" he didn't elaborate but tony who had sat up on his knees to watch Steve over the back of the couch knew what he was talking about "oh yeah, crazy old man with bank vault security"

Tony waved his hand "kind of weird lemme know if it's anything interesting" Steve rolled his eyes because he couldn't help it; this boy was just damned and determined to get himself arrested.

"Sure tony" he said but they both knew Steve probably wouldn't say a word about it to him "hey" Steve turned to look at tony and raised a brow.

The young man was chewing on his bottom lip "do you mind if I uh" tony stopped again and Steve walked closer "Crash on my couch?" he rose a hand to cup the younger man's jaw and ran his thumb over the swell of his bottom lip making him release it from his teeth.

"That's fine, just don't complain when you wake up with a crick in your neck" tony blinked at him with large outrageously brown doe eyes that made something in his knees get wobbly.

It got worse when tony grinned at him "thanks Steve"

Steve dropped his hand and turned toured his room before he did something stupid, like jump tony on the couch, he actually did need to wake up early in the morning.

"Just don't turn the TV up to loud, neighbor's hate that" he heard tony snort and was pretty sure he muttered something about sex but he ignored it.

It was going to be a long night.

The couch wasn't as bad as tony thought it would be, he fell asleep pretty easily and his sleep was strangely peaceful.

Until he heard a scream.

Sitting straight up he heard it again and looked around half panicked, images of when he was five and kidnapped flashing to the front of his mind, his nanny a 15 year old that ended up being shot and almost dying.

If the kidnappers hadn't tripped the alarm, he would have probably suffered the same fate.

Or worse, ended up dead.

But the door hadn't been kicked in, there wasn't anyone else in the apartment, for a moment he didn't know whose apartment it was but then there was another scream and it came from the direction of the bedroom.

In a flash, he remembered it was Steve's apartment at the same time he was leaping off the couch.

To be honest it wasn't really a scream, it was a shout of pain and fear and anger and when tony rushed into Steve's bedroom, he found not burglars or gunmen but just Steve, alone, withering in his sheets with his eyes squeezed closed.

Tony doubted any attacked could make the man afraid but the attackers in his head. Nothing could match those; tony knew the one thing even the most fearless man in the world was afraid of was his own mind.

Moving to the side of the bed closest to Steve tony reached out and grasped the man's shoulder crawling onto the bed on his knees "Steve? Steve wake up" he shook the man which made his eyes shoot open.

Pupils dilated he reacted out of adrenaline soaked fear and grabbed Tony's arm yanking him to the side making tony land on his back "Steve it's me" the man froze when he spoke and blinked a couple of times then ground his teeth together "fucking idiot" he ground out and tony was vaguely offended "what are you doing in here? I could have hurt you"

Pursing his lips tony pulled with his left leg while pushing with his right hand and throwing up his right hip flipping Steve over onto his back, the man didn't let go of his grip on Tony's arm and he seemed vaguely surprised tony could flip him tony mentally thanked happy.

"I heard you screaming and wanted to make sure you weren't being murdered, next time I'll leave you to your attackers"

Steve had to admire the kid's spunk even if he had no notable self-preservation skills to speak of.

"I'm fine," he said matching the younger man's annoyed expression even if he was vaguely embarrassed because shit, he hadn't had a night terror in a long time why now? "It was just a nightmare, I'm fine"

Tony didn't look convinced.

Just what he needed.

"I swear to god if you ask if I want to talk about it I'm going to- what are you doing" his annoyance turned into confusion as the younger man huffed and collapsed on top of him.

For a moment, he wondered if he actually did accidentally hurt the kid, "I'm going to sleep, what do you think I'm doing" Steve blinked slowly staring at the younger man's hair as he rested his head on Steve's shoulder.

"laying on me" he answered stupidly and the younger man rose his head long enough to give him an unimpressed look before putting his head back where it was "your warm and I not walking my ass back to the couch"

Steve huffed out a breath but fell quiet and just stared at his ceiling for a minute before giving up, the edges of his nightmare, half remembered showing him glimpses of things he would rather not think about, blood and death not of him but of the people he cared about.

Thoughts of a job gone bad and his friends, his family being hurt and dying people he cared about.

Including tony.

Therefore, with a deep sigh he raised his hand and laid it on Tony's back, feeling it move as he breathed and turned his head to bury his nose in Tony's hair, inhaling the smell of grease and metal that clung to the younger man, the smell of stale coffee.

God Steve needed a cigarette but he doubted tony would move to let him reach the pack of Marlboros and lighter in his dresser, he also kind of didn't want him to move because, well...

He was comfortable, and oddly soothing but Steve didn't want to think about that he didn't want to think about anything.

"I almost died today" he found himself saying, barely more than a whisper in the still darkness of the room.

He felt tony go rigged on top of him but the younger man didn't move away and Steve started rubbing soothing circles on his back "someone jumped a friend of mine after a job, beat her up, she's fine but it's the idea that someone had enough gall to steal from us"

Steve stopped and licked his lips tony staying very still and very quiet "we went into the place they were hiding in, an old chop shop and we fought them and one of the guys was a fucking ninja, I was distracted and one of them pulled a gun"

He heard the shot again and felt the heat of it "I could have died this morning but that's not what's bugging me I mean I'm not exactly willing to die or anything I kind of like being alive and it's not like it was a new experience for me"

Steve rubbed his face with his hand "every time I go on a job the risk is there, I don't get a retirement plan but I just, I" he stopped when a hand touched his face scrapping over the stubble starting to gather on his face reminding him he needed to shave soon.

"Steve" the hand pulled his face to look at Tony's "your rambling" Steve frowned at tony but let the younger man kiss him and sighed when he pulled away letting his head rest on his pillow again "are you ok?" tony asked after a minute and Steve couldn't help smirking "being 'ok' is a matter of prospective"

Tony punched his chest and he couldn't hold in a chuckle "well your still breathing so I don't think you can ask for much more" Steve hummed in agreement then looked toured him "so now you know what was bugging me, you Wanna tell me what happened to your face this time?"

The younger man pressed his lips together and didn't say anything which made Steve huff slightly "come on, quid pro quo, I showed you mine so show me yours" tony narrowed his eyes at the man for a moment before sighing and letting his head fall back to Steve's shoulder.

"It's nothing, just an argument, regular family drama bullshit, it's stupid"

Steve's brow furrowed in what he pretended wasn't concern "if your old man uses you as a punching bag no its not"

He felt the younger man shift around uncomfortably "yeah well he's never around enough for it to be an issue, he shows up for a day maybe two, spends it getting drunk and reminding me what a 'disappointment to his legacy' I am even though I was a hell of a lot smarter than him when I was five.

"Then he leaves again, not that I'm complaining it gives me a break so I can do some actual work" he felt Tony's fingers wandering over his shirt, tracing his collar bones like it was some sort of comfort method then tony stopped and glanced at him "I told you, stupid"

Steve hummed but didn't outright agree, then again tony wasn't really paying attention because he was moving grabbing Steve's blankets from where he'd kicked them and curling up under them on Steve's chest.

He guessed the young man was thinking it would hold Steve down if he started to have another nightmare, which was amusing since Steve could probably pick him up with one arm.

Not that he was bragging or that tony was particularly small, Steve was just strong.

Huffing to himself because who was he kidding he was definitely bragging for a moment there he closed his eyes and let himself go back to sleep.


	19. Chapter 19

Tony woke up warm.

Not that it was surprising for that to happen given how many blankets he usually slept under but this was a different kind of warmth.

A type of warmth that only came from lying with another body.

He didn't want to think about how use to the feeling he was becoming because it ended in only two ways.

Heartbreak or lawyers.

Both if you were really unlucky, along with a nasty drinking problem.

Opening his eyes slowly he found himself staring into Steve's chest while the man snored quietly above him.

Tony wanted to curl back up and go to sleep but he knew he couldn't because for some dumbass reason he thought it was a good idea to go to college and collages gave people homework and his extra credit science paper was due that night by seven.

Moreover, he needed to check that paper for his phycology class because he now cared what the teacher there thought of his work.

It hadn't taken long to move the bitch teacher from his school across the country and the man that took over was amazing, he was calm, collected, and at the same time took no shit, which is why he was one of Tony's favorite teachers.

Rumbling something he was pretty sure was more groan than anything else tony slid away from Steve's warmth and went to use the bathroom.

And of course, the moment he was vertical his mind decided to start firing on most of its cylinders making the idea of sleep disappear completely.

Damn brain, why did it have to be a morning person when the rest of him clearly wasn't even human.

Once his bladder was empty he shuffled into the kitchen and made coffee going to grab his backpack as the machine gurgled to life so he could pull out his paper from the night before and squint at it until there was enough coffee to fill a mug.

The letters and words were just fuzzy smudges of black on the white paper almost like some foreign language.

He gave up for a moment to retrieve his coffee cup, when he returned to it with cup in hand the smudges looked a little more legible but not by much.

With a groan, he rubbed his eyes, setting his cup on the kitchen island as he did, he could already tell it was going to be a long day; his head hurt just from the general idea of it and for a moment tony cursed himself for starting after this degree in the first place.

But, complaining wouldn't get him anywhere and he actually liked the work sometimes, so he just sighed glared at the still fuzzy but now recognizable words and got to work.

Steve woke up chilled.

He was lying on his stomach and his blankets were tangled around his legs leaving his feet and upper body uncovered.

His mouth was dry the way that only happened when you have slept for more than five hours undisturbed which was a surprise, he didn't usually sleep for longer than that, especially not on the eve of a job.

Lifting his arms above his head, he stretched and felt something in his back pop, followed shortly by his shoulders and hips.

His muscles burned pleasantly for a moment then he went slack and rolled onto his back with a yawn.

Sunlight was slanted across his ceiling from the window; brighter than what he was use to when waking up.

Curiosity getting the better of him he reached for his phone on the nightstand to check the time and discovered two very surprising things.

First that it was 11:45 almost noon and second the device he checked the time on was clearly a smart phone but an outrageously expensive one, thin enough it would barely pass as a piece of glass let alone technology.

The screensaver was a hotrod and the name just above the clock was Tony S.

Tony's phone, why was it.

Steve remembered the night before when he was woken from his demons by tony and damn near stabbed the kid in the face.

Which reminded him, he needed to tell that dumbass just how fucking stupid he was, Steve could have hurt him or even killed him and what did tony do? Shrug it off and lay on top of him!

Sure it was comforting but damn it he could have seriously hurt the kid and Steve hated that he cared so much.

It was the exact opposite of what he needed, he needed to get away from tony, put distance between them, Steve had far too many enemies to risk the kid's life for a few extra hours of sleep and decent sex.

Ok, the sex was more than decent, it was pretty fucking good, pun intended, but that was beside the point.

Dark thoughts filling his mind Steve sat up and put the phone back, almost afraid of breaking it, then got out of bed to grab some clothes and take a shower.

While in the shower he tried to banish the dark thoughts and get his head in the game, last thing he needed was to be distracted and get all of them caught, Bucky would never let him live it down after the shit Steve gave Clint for getting distracted by his girlfriend at the time.

Could she have even qualified as his girlfriend thought? That's what Clint called her but Steve was pretty sure it was more of a two-date-spend-the-weekend-in-her-pent-house-bedroom kind of thing.

Then again, Steve was pretty sure she was a stripper so maybe Clint got the 'girlfriend experience'

Shaking his head, he left the shower and started getting dressed.

Walking toured his kitchen drying his hair he thought tony had left and just forgotten his phone but he could smell fresh coffee.

And by fresh, he meant he could hear his ancient coffee maker growling.

Lowering his towel, he looked toured the machine and narrowed his eyes.

That damn coffee maker was more fickle than any lock he had tried to crack, half the time it didn't work right, and the other half the coffee with filled with grounds, the only real reason he kept the damn thing was because of nostalgia.

But now it seemed to be brewing just fine and on the off chance of sounding slightly crazy, seemed happy to be doing it.

Maybe Sam was right and he did need to have his head examined.

Turning his head he looking toured his TV, which was on, and- what was hanging over the back of his couch.

Walking closer with silent steps he looked at the legs flung over the back of his couch and followed them with his eyes.

Tony was laying upside down on his couch reading some kind of book that was propped upside down on his coffee table his arms were crossed and a laptop sat to one side of him while papers with illegible scribbles on them were laying on the other.

The nearby trashcan seemed to have received several of those pages.

"do you always sit like that?" he couldn't help asking making tony jolt and almost fall off the couch, Steve's hand on his leg kept him from flipping over.

The younger man lifted his head and gave him what Steve could only describe as a dirty look "well I don't know, do you always consider noon to be early"

Steve didn't have a comeback for that one so he just turned away "is the coffee lethal?" he asked instead "oh ha ha you're so funny, no it's not lethal it has all the strength of dirty water"

"Technically coffee is nothing but dirty water" he called from the kitchen and heard an outraged gasp as he pulled down a mug "that is an insult, how dare you insult the nectar of the gods"

Steve snorted as he took a cautious sip, then a drink when it didn't burn his eyes "I'd just rather not use my coffee to peal paint is all," he said in amusement.

Then he stopped and stared at the cup, tony making coffee, them teasing each other about the strength they preferred, waking up and grabbing Tony's phone by mistake, it was all so...

Domestic.

Steve swallowed against the bitter taste that had nothing to do with the coffee and put down his mug.

Tony rolled his eyes at Steve's comment "it is not that strong" he said moving to sit up correctly "but when you've been drinking it since you were five normal gets old really fast"

He looked toured Steve and furrowed his brows then tilted his head "hey are you alright?" the man looked toured him and just stared for a moment then he seemed to shake himself "I'm fine"

Tony wanted to call bullshit but something held his tongue, after all it wasn't like he was Steve's boyfriend tony didn't have boyfriends, although before he met Steve he didn't know he liked guys but he hardly ever had a girlfriend either.

Tony stark was no boyfriend, to anyone, at least not for long.

Now that he thought about it, he had no idea what they were, Steve saved his ass and gave him pizza, and he'd like to at least think they were friends but he didn't know.

He really didn't need this on his mind when he had a test and essay he needed to study for and finish writing within the next three hours.

So he shoved the voice that was asking the questions into a little box in the back of his head and looked at Steve who was pulling on boots "hey" he started making the man look at him and hum in question.

"Do you mind if I uh" he made a vague motion to encompass the couch but didn't know how to finish voicing his question.

Luckily Steve took pity on his struggle after a minute and spoke "hid upside down on my couch?" he offered and tony glared at him "it helps me think and I have a quiz in 3 hours"

He could see Steve rolling his eyes "I don't give a shit" he said only slightly absently, like something was distracting him again "just make sure to lock the door when you leave, I probably won't be back tonight"

"What" tony started leaning his arm on the back of the couch "no honor among thieves?"

The look Steve sent him made tony shiver "not even a little" after a moment tony looked away and waved his hand "oh just go, good luck robbing and old guy with really high tech security" he saw Steve smirk from the corner of his eye and felt warmth in his gut and his ears.

"Good luck on your test," Steve said and turned away "I don't need it" tony said without thinking and heard a chuckle "neither do I"

He wasn't sure if Steve was being sarcastic or if he was just that good of a thief but either way it made him shiver and wonder just what he'd gotten himself into.

And how he might be able to get into it again.


	20. Chapter 20

Steve did a good job of not thinking about how fucked he was until he parked behind jen's antiques shop and walked inside.

Sharon was watching the counter again when he walked in and started to smile at him but then she took a good look at him and furrowed his brows "hey Steve are you feeling alright?"

He looked at the young woman in confusion "yeah, why?" she pursed her lips then shook her head and painted on a large smile "no reason, you just seem different" he hummed then scratched the stubble on his cheek, he guessed that was what she meant.

Steve hadn't shaved the morning and for some reason his beard came in a different color from the rest of his hair "the others here?" he questioned and she nodded "yep, their all in the back"

With a nod Steve walked toured the back room and opened the door to see it was, empty.

That had never happened before.

It put him on guard and he couldn't help glancing back at Sharon but she was playing with her phone again and wasn't acting as if anything was wrong, then again, Jan didn't really bring the illegal stuff up around the teenager so maybe something was wrong.

All standing there was doing was raising his anxiety so slowly he started walking toured the door, he stopped to listen for a moment before opening the door to find Bucky pacing in front of the table where the others sat.

They all looked at him when the door opened and he could see the relief on their faces, well not all of their faces, Natasha looked like she knew exactly where he was and Jan was glancing at Natasha in very well hidden exasperation.

"where were you?" he looked at Bucky who was glaring at him and rose a brow before closing the door behind himself "I was asleep" he said and heard a snort "since when do you sleep boss?"

Steve looked at the man and rose a brow making Clint's expression slip and his phone suddenly become very interesting "Jan?" he looked at the owner of the shop who looked up from studying her perfectly manicured nails.

"Yes darling?" she questioned in a way that made Steve want to roll his eyes so badly he barely resisted "what happened to the shop? I've never seen it empty" Jan raised one shoulder "just a little spring cleaning is all, don't worry too much about it, although I thought you would enjoy not having to crab walk just to get back here"

He hummed mostly to himself; the only time Jan did any spring-cleaning was when people they didn't want to ask questions were asking questions.

How convenient.

"Then we probably need to do our own spring cleaning tonight" he said and saw Sam shift in his seat from the corner of his eye "think that's smart?" Steve nodded and pulled out a chair to sit down "if people are sniffing around its better to get it out of the way now so we can lay low for a while"

Clint leaned forward to prop his arms on the table "agreed, and depending on what we find we may be able to drop below the radar for a few months, maybe longer"

That peaked Steve's interest "you think it's that good?" Bucky asked from where he leaned, his arm was wrapped around his middle, like he wanted to cross his arms but forgot one was missing.

"Well, it's up in the air, I looked up this guy's security and its, well its excessive" Steve leaned back slightly in his seat as Jan turned toured Clint "what do you mean by excessive?"

Clint pulled out a notebook "I mean five locks on every door forty cameras both heat and motion detecting, all of the watched by an armed guard, its Budapest level security in a junk store"

The room fell quiet at the mention of one of Natasha's old jobs and everyone glanced at each other almost in dread "is there any way in?" Sam finally gave voice the the question most of them were wondering.

Clint grinned and glanced at Steve "there is always a way" Steve nearly rolled his eyes again.

That was his line.

Tony was distracted.

Ok that was stating the obvious, he was always distracted and thinking about random things, it was just the way his mind worked but this time, it was different.

Currently he was sitting in class, quiz sitting in front of him half answered as he stared out the nearby window at the slowly darkening sky but his mind was still in Steve's apartment.

The man had acted weird just before leaving, at least he assumed that was weird for Steve, he hadn't really known the man all that long so for all tony knew he always acted like that just before a job, but something in his gut told tony something was bothering the man.

Thing was he had no idea what it could be

Then again, he told himself while filling in another blank on his test, maybe he was just imagining things and needed to cut back on the coffee and substitute it for some decent sleep.

Something lit up in his skull and a different possibility popped out of it, maybe he scared the man when he woke him up like that last night, maybe almost dying was bothering him more than he let on.

Speaking of was that a normal thing for him? Almost dying? Tony thought being a thief was just, masks and stripped black and white shirts and bags with a money sign on them.

Ok not really but he didn't think death would be something Steve would be so use to it didn't bother him to be held at gunpoint, of course what was bothering Steve, if anything was bothering him, could be the fact that this time it did bother him, wasn't that what he said,?

Tony didn't know, he was thinking in circles and giving himself a headache and he needed to actually finish his test because Professor Pym was looking straight at him with his forehead crinkling in the way that tony knew meant he was going to ask.

The other people in the class were also glancing at him with varying expressions of confusion and in some causes curiosity.

Ducking his head, he finished his half-assed answers, correcting some of the others he could see he got wrong while distracted, then got up put his paper on Pym's desk and left before anyone could say anything.

He didn't run he just made his exit with haste, he also didn't hide in the computer lab he just had a very important thing to do that he only just remembered.

Tony stark didn't hide.

Although when someone came snooping they sure as hell couldn't find him behind the rows of monitors.

He wasn't hiding thought; they just didn't look very well behind the biggest computer in the very back of the room.

Very not hiding.

The plan was pretty straightforward.

Bucky would keep a look out on the street cameras while monitoring the police scanner and let them know if something happened.

Barton would be driving, of course, and hack into the security, take most of it offline and the rest Steve would take down from the electrical box on the side of the building.

Sam would go in with him just in case he needed backup and because a second pair of eyes always helped.

Of course, nothing ever went according to plan.

There was a standard touch pad alarm hardwired into the phone lines, Steve had two minutes before cops were dispatched but it hadn't taken him that long to disarm one of those things since he started stealing.

Sam looked nervous at Steve's nonchalance while taking off the security pads housing to expose the interior "relax" he muttered pulling out a few wires and sticking them in different ports, making the alarm beep twice and flash green before going silent.

He looked back at Sam who slumped slightly "if that is the only issue we have we'll be lucky" he told the man before standing "your insulting my work boss?" Clint's voice came though the earpiece Steve had "a year ago you got me chased by a dog"

"Ok I forgot to look at animal records I didn't think I had to, it wasn't a junkyard"

Steve spoke over him "not so long ago you got me chased by the cops and just after that you almost ran me over"

It was silent for a moment, the time of which he used to walk to a nearby shelf to assess the parts for value "maybe you should retire punk," Bucky said "maybe I should being around the lot of you is hazardous to my health"

They all knew it was an empty threat but none of them actually said that, he looked over the shelves slowly, and plucked a few things up as he went.

The others were right and a lot of it was junk but there were a few things he was sure Jan could find a buyer for.

He had just picked up some motherboard looking thing that was a lot shiner and a lot newer than anything else on the shelf when he heard a soft whistle.

Turning from the picked shelves he walked into the back room where Sam had his own bag a few items heavier and stood staring at the door to the other back room, the one Steve really wanted a look inside of.

"Think you can get it?" Steve asked the man who turned and rose a brow at him "I'm sure I can but it may take a couple minutes, you want to try and open that safe with your magic touch?"

Sam barely resisted making quotation marks with his hands, Steve could see it in the way he fisted his hands before turning away "just because I'm better at this than you doesn't mean its magic" Steve found himself muttering as he turned toured the safe set into the wall above a table.

It looked to be about as old fashioned as the shop.

It was a dial turn, the wheel numbered 1 to 120, couldn't be that hard.

Walking closer Steve put down his bag and tried the lever, it was locked but it was worth a try, more than once he had walked up to a safe expecting to take forever to crack it only to find the owner left it unlocked.

Honestly, Steve thought, what was the point of owning a locking safe if you never locked it, or kept the combination in your dresser, Steve had come across some of those to, it made his job easier but at the same time made him wonder why people didn't get robbed more often.

It almost made him feel sorry for the people for being so stupid.

Almost.

Sympathy didn't get people very far in the 'business' cause sympathy eventually turned to guilt, which ate people up until they turned themselves in or ate a bullet.

Or ruined their livers and got themselves caught.

With a shake of his head, Steve reached out for the safe pressing one hand flat beside the dial and just barely resting the fingers of his other hand against the dial he slowly started to turn it.

Clint liked to call it a magic touch but in all reality, it was practice and knowing what to look for.

The basics of a safe were the dial turned and slotted rods into place in the locking mechanism if you went too far or not far enough the rods sprung back out and you had to start over.

The robs locking into place made a quiet click easily heard with a stethoscope, the click also made the mechanism shift just enough, especially in old safes which this one was, to be felt if you had a steady hand.

Which he did.

The first click he heard and felt made him smile, so he turned the dial the other way.

It was a job of trial and error and not even Steve was perfect at it, a point proven when he had to start over twice to find the second number in the combination but patience was key.

Finally, after a few minutes he moved his palm and tried the handle.

And grinned when it turned and it clicked open.

Looking inside he found, a surprising amount of cash a couple of flash drives a lot of papers and a handgun.

Steve frowned and carefully pulled out the cash and flash drives and then he looked at some of the papers.

They looked like contracts of some sort between the shop's owner and someone named Stan "I got it" Sam said making Steve look up and toured him before stuffing the papers in his bag to look at later.

"good job" Steve said closing his bag as Sam opened up the door he had managed to jimmy open.

And froze.

"Sam?" Steve questioned looking at the man in confusion but he didn't reply.

Steve's stomach made a strange dropping motion he knew meant he wasn't going to like what he was about to see but he didn't know what it was.

It couldn't be a guard because that wouldn't make Sam freeze up and Steve couldn't hear anything so he was pretty sure it was just the two of them in the building.

What could possibly make Sam...

Steve approached and looked over the man's shoulder and his gut dropped.

"Oh. Fuck."


	21. Chapter 21

Steve expected to see so many things on the other side of the door.

From a torture room to a sex chamber, he didn't know what they would find.

But he didn't think it would be this.

The back room was filled with guns even a quick glance around the room showed Steve pistols and rifles and grenades and shotguns and missiles.

Fucking missiles!

"Guys? What did you find in there? Steve same can you hear us?" Bucky was talking in Steve's ear and it's all that made him snap out of it "yeah it's. Shit buck, it's not good" he said.

Stepping slowly into the room he looked at the crates looking in them but not daring to touch them in case they were rigged "its guns, a lot of guns" Sam said when Clint asked what he meant.

"Who would need this much ammunition?" Sam asked looking at everything spread around the room "shit boss, what did we stumble onto here?" he asked making Steve look at him "something a whole lot bigger than we thought"

Steve nodded toured the money on a nearby table "we take that and we get the fuck out of here"

"yeah no shit" Sam moved to the table and started placing the cash into his bag, Steve was looking at a shipping label on one of the boxes when suddenly something buzzed loudly in the silence.

He and Sam both froze for a moment before it happened again and Sam looked at him "what is that?"

Steve reached into his back pocket and fished out his phone, which was vibrating insistently "my phone?" he said almost like a question "didn't you turn that off?" Sam sounded aggravated but Steve barely paid it any attention, to confused to notice.

"Yes I did," he said and unlocked the screen "what is it?" Clint asked curiously "it's a message" now Steve was confused, there was no number no contact and the message opened immediately so he could read it.

Which he did.

Twice.

"from who and can it wait" Bucky asked as Steve read it a third time just to make sure "we need to get out of here, now" he said turning toured the door "what is it?" Sam asked and Steve stopped just long enough to let the man read it.

It was a simple message but made the man's eyes widen, all it said was 'Cops almost there. Get out'

Sam cursed and moved toured the door "Clint move now" Steve ordered and moved toured the door with Sam but the reflection of lights made him grab his friend by the hood and pull.

Cursing under his breath Steve moved quickly to the back room again, ignoring all of the guns in exchange for the very back door.

He opened it out into the alley behind the shop and glanced at Sam once before pulling up the hood on his hoodie and moving out into the alley.

Glancing to the right he saw a brick wall too large to scale, to the left passed several dumpsters a cop car drove by increasingly slow.

He didn't like his options either way but they didn't have much of a choice.

Moving slowly and staying with the edge of the buildings he started toured the alley entrance only to duck behind one of the dumpsters when a cop car stopped right in the mouth of it.

Looking around the corner of the smelly blue bin, he found more than one car; he saw three more before he ducked behind the dumpster again.

"What are our options?" Sam asked as Steve let his head thunk against the wall "I'd say five to ten" Steve couldn't help saying even though it made Sam glare at him.

Suddenly his phone buzzed again, quieter than the time before but enough to make him jolt before he reached down and pulled it out to look at the message, it said 'on my mark. Run.'

"Are we really going to trust this guy?" Sam asked reading over his shoulder "do we have any other choice at the moment?" Steve questioned typing out a response of 'what are you going to do?'

'Create a distraction' "well" Sam said and leaned back "that sounds promising" Steve glanced at the man then heard a beeping sound.

He recognized it as one of the cop's radios but he couldn't hear what they were saying.

Glancing around the dumpster again, he watched as two cops ran to the car parked in the alley and got in, firing it up and almost blinding him with the headlights before they were rushing out of the alley.

'Go' his phone said and he glanced at Sam who gave him a strained look before he started running.

Tony was sitting at the very back counsel in the library, when the on duty librarian walked behind him, obviously looking at the screen, as the gossips of the school were wont to do, all the woman saw was him playing galaga.

Of course once she walked away he tapped a couple of keys and the screen turned black again, once green now blue text scrolling by and a small video feed playing at the top corner.

The picture was grainy and blurry from the flashing lights but he still saw two figures run from the mouth of an alley, across the street and into another alley.

He tapped the tab button on the keyboard and the video feed shifted to the mouth of another alley.

Tony waited, watched, and then smiled as two men slowly stepped out of it and into the back of a waiting van.

With his lips twitching up at the sides, he pressed three keys at the same time and reset the computer.

Standing up from his seat, he stretched his back and heard something pop before sighing in pleasure and reaching out to grab his bag.

Swinging it up over his shoulder, he left the library and then the school and started walking in the general direction of his house.

After a few minutes, he stopped and pulled his bag out in front of himself to look inside of it because he noticed it felt really, well, light compared to normal.

Then he groaned and took a left instead of a right, walking now toured Steve's apartment.

And his fucking computer.

Maybe he would be lucky and Steve wouldn't be there yet, that way he could just slip in grab it off the couch and then disappear and go home.

He rather missed his own bed, a little bit.

well, kind of.


	22. Chapter 22

Clint dropped him off at his building only after they dropped Sam off, the night had been to close, again, and despite Clint's pestering, he agreed that they needed to call it a night and get some rest.

They would need clear heads when they met up at Jan's in the morning to try to figure out not only what tipped off the cops but also what the fuck it was that they found, outside of enough munitions to equip a small army.

Steve drug himself up the stairs slowly, his mind buzzing with questions that he couldn't answer.

It was supposed to be an easy job, a simple job, an in and out hit to float them through long enough to let the heat die down job, but it was none of those things, that shop was a front for something but he didn't know what.

The more he thought about it the worse the possibilities became, when the thought crossed his mind that the shop could have been a front for a group of murderers he decided he just really needed to stop thinking and go to bed.

Of course, that wouldn't happen if he didn't open his door.

Wondering just how long he had been standing there staring at the numbers on his door like a dumbass he dug out his keys and opened the door closing it silently behind him.

Dropping his bag by the door Steve considered just going straight to bed and collapsing for the night the 'excitement' of the day catching up to him.

But that thought flew straight out the window when he pulled off his hoodie and got a good whiff of it and suddenly remembered he had been crouching in an alley and leaning against a dumpster.

With a deep sigh, he drug his feet to his bathroom and turned on the shower, letting the water warm while he finished stripping.

The moment the hot water hit his skin he had to groan.

The water pressure was shitty in his apartment which wasn't surprising given how old the building was but it was hot and that alone made him start to relax.

He took his time washing, scrubbing until his skin was pink in some places and then he just stood there for a minute to enjoy the warmth.

Until his mind decided he had been relaxing for long enough and reminded him how close a call that night had been.

He could have been caught, Sam could have been caught and both of them ended up in jail, Steve knew it was a chance they all took but still, he shouldn't have rushed, they should have watched another day but of course Steve stressed himself because of that morning with tony.

Steve stopped toweling himself off, if it was black market he put tony in danger, damn it! He needed to avoid the young man now more than ever.

With a shake of his head Steve wrapped his towel around his waist and grabbed another to towel at his hair before stepping up to the sink.

He wiped the steam off the mirror and stared at himself for a moment, looking at just how tired he looked.

There were dark shadows under his eyes and the hair on his jaw had gone past five o'clock shadow and was in that middle stage between 'homelessness' and an actual beard, never being the biggest fan of a beard, especially when it came in dark while his hair was blonde, he reached out for his shaving kit.

But suddenly he froze and turned his head.

His front door had just opened.

Someone had just come into his apartment and it wasn't Bucky because his best friend would have announced himself, especially after a close shave on a job.

Walking silently, he stepped out of his bathroom and opened his bedside table, pulling a gun from its holster there, not bothering with the fact the only thing that stood between him and nakedness was a towel he turned to his bedroom door and slowly crept out to investigate, and confront, his intruder.

Tony stood outside Steve's building for a good 20 minutes debating whether he should go in before he started to feel like a creeper.

He did a good job not thinking about just how much of a creeper he actually was as he finally went inside and started climbing the stairs.

However, five flights of stairs gave a person time to think and he was defiantly thinking about it when he finally reached the door and stopped when he saw a very faint light coming from under it.

And then he reached up and rubbed his face when he realized something else, he dint have a key.

He was going to have to break in,

To a thief's house.

Where said thief may or may not currently be.

Tony had to chuckle at the thought.

It took about five minutes but he finally got the door open and closed it as quietly as possible once on the other side, he couldn't hear anything in the apartment so he hoped Steve wasn't back yet but he still tried to walk as quietly as possible toured the couch where he left his computer.

Half way there, he almost tripped over something and looked down at a wad of dark fabric.

He just barely realized it was Steve's hoodie when he heard a sound he learned to recognize at a very young age.

"No sudden moves" tony wondered if raising his hands was a sudden move and instead moved them out to his sides where they were visible.

"In my defense" he started "I didn't think you were here"

"Tony" he could hear the man's confusion "what are you doing here?"

Taking that as a cue that he could now move tony turned around to.

To.

That towel was hanging really low.

Realizing he was staring tony jabbed his thumb over his shoulder toured the couch "I uh. Laptop. I forgot it" he swallowed to wet his dry throat, his eyes couldn't help traveling, looking at the man's body, his washboard abs, the waist to shoulder ratio of a god, a very small white towel that seemed to be slipping and covered all but nothing and a jaw that he knew...

Tony stopped and looked again, his eyes focusing on Steve's face; the dark hair on his jaw that made him look almost homeless matched the shadows under his eyes.

"Are you ok?" he felt himself asking.

The man looked at him for a moment then turned away hopefully to put away his gun "I'm fine" he said a little too forcefully to believe "how the fuck did you even get in here? The door was locked" tony looked away and rubbed the back of his neck then crossed his arms "I uh, I picked the lock"

Steve looked at tony brows shooting up in surprise "you... picked the lock" the younger man squirmed slightly and uncrossed his arms only to refold them, Steve was also sure he was blushing.

"I taught myself a while ago I have a bad habit of locking myself out and there are only so many times you can crawl through a window" tony shut up when Steve started to chuckle

Was he ever going to not be surprised by the younger?

Tony felt himself flush when Steve started chuckling and it got worse when the man said "and here I thought you were smart" tony turned away and marched to the couch grabbing his computer from where it had fallen to the floor "I am and again I didn't even think you were here"

He felt more than heard Steve came up behind him effectively trapping him between the arm of the couch and his warm still damp body.

"yet you still tried to sneak in" he said lowly and ducked his head "ya know if you didn't put so much weight on the front of your foot, I wouldn't have even heard you" tony couldn't stop himself from shivering and moved, about to turn around when a hand landed on his shoulder.

It was large, warm and heavy, but it didn't press down, long fingers didn't close on his shoulder they just rested there.

Steve wasn't trying to restrain him; he was just, encouraging him not to turn around.


	23. Chapter 23

Tony started to turn but Steve dropped his hand on the younger man's shoulder, he had a feeling that if he looked into the youngers eyes he'd do something he'd regret.

Instead, Steve pressed his face against Tony's shoulder, moving his hand down to the youngers arm, what he wanted to do and what he had to do warring inside his head.

Steve wanted to press tony down, wanted to use him, tease him until he was begging for it and then make sure he couldn't walk without a limp for days.

But at the same time Steve knew he had to send tony away, make him leave then pack a bag and disappear, at least until they figured out just who the fuck they robbed, had to make sure tony wouldn't come looking and put himself in even more danger.

That was what he had to do, the only problem was, Steve had never been good at giving up on what he wanted, he would always fight doing what he had to do hints so many hospital stays as a child and this time was no different.

He knew he had to stop and walk away even as his other hand slipped under Tony's shirt to feel warm skin, pressed his mouth to Tony's shoulder until the younger went loose and leaned his weight into Steve's chest.

Tony huffed slightly and leaned against Steve's chest body going loose as Steve slid a hand under his shirt.

Shifting his head to the side he moved one hand back to touch Steve's exposed thigh, his skin was hard with muscle and still damp from his shower, making the slide of his palm smooth as he slid it up to the edge of the towel.

The position was just this side of too awkward for him to be able to do more than let his hand rest there, half supporting some of his weight and half feeling Steve's muscles twitch like he wanted to do more.

He could understand that, to be honest tony kind of wanted to turn around, even if Steve didn't want him to, and kiss him, maybe drop to his knees and try that blowjob thing again.

But he didn't, he didn't know why he didn't but he just kind of shrugged it off, there were many things he found himself wanting to do with Steve.

He felt Steve's hand that had been on his arm slide down and then move to his waist, his palm flat against Tony's exposed hip for a moment before moving up under his shirt and cross his chest to replace Steve's left hand that slid down and stopped just below Tony's belly button.

Steve's fingers pressed down, his nails scratching lightly at Tony's skin in a way that almost tickled as his other hand found one of his nipples and his thumb brushed over it in a barely there pressure, making Tony's skin twitch and his breath stutter.

Steve pressed his hips forward in a slow grind, ducking his head to lip at Tony's neck just under his ear while moving his left hand further down, slowly, sliding below the waist of the youngers jeans until Steve's palm brushed over the hard bulge in the front of Tony's briefs.

He couldn't help a quirk of his lips, especially when tony let out a half choked sound of approval.

There wasn't much room in Tony's pants so all Steve could really do with rub his palm over the bulge but it was worth it when he felt Tony's fingers clutching at his thigh, saw the youngers mouth fall open and his head lean back.

He could make him cum like this, Steve thought, make him writhe with pleasure, make him beg and moan and spill in his pants like a teenager.

At least that's what he could do but something inside of him wouldn't let that be the end of it, it wanted him to be inside the younger when he came, he wanted to ruin the young man, fill him up until he was overflowing and not likely to forget anytime soon.

So that's what he did.

He pulled his hands away from the youngers body to instead pull at his shirt, lifting it up and off barely pausing to drop it before moving to unbutton Tony's pants.

At first tony whined in displeasure when Steve stopped what he was doing but forgot about it when Steve started lifting his shirt, pulling it from his body none to gently.

Tony didn't care and just lifted his arms to make it easier.

Once his hands were free of the material he reached back and buried his fingers in Steve's damp hair pulling him forward, tony twisted his upper body just enough for their mouths to meet in a sloppy kiss.

He felt Steve's hands pause on the front of his pants for a moment before he pulled away from Tony's mouth and pressed his face to the back of Tony's neck, hands making quick work of his button and fly.

Steve pushed them down until Tony's pants were around his ankles but he only pulled his briefs down far enough to expose his ass.

Tony felt a hand push sharply on his back between his shoulder blades bending him over the couch with his ass in the air.

His dick was still trapped, rather uncomfortably, in the folds of his briefs and he started to push himself up, to fix it or say something he didn't know because all he got out was a sharp squeak sound when Steve bit one of his cheeks.

Steve pushed tony forward and dropped to his knees behind the younger man, giving one round cheek a sharp bite when he felt tony try to sit up again.

He soothed the now red skin with his tongue before pulling away to grip his cheeks, squeezing them lightly before pulling them apart and pressing the thumb of one hand to the smooth skin just above his balls.

Steve teased at Tony's hole with his other hand, just rubbing a finger against and around the muscle until tony whined at his teasing.

Now he wanted to fuck the younger man but his lube was in his bedroom and he wasn't about to use spit and hurt the kid.

However, he also didn't want to get up and retrieve it, because he knew the second he did he'd start thinking sensibly again and tell the younger to leave but he wanted tony again, wanted him like an addict wanted a final hit before getting clean.

Tony could hear the gears turning in Steve's head, knew Steve wanted inside but apparently, the oddly placed bottles of lube were only in his bedroom.

Good thing tony liked to be ready for anything "there's lube in my bag, front pocket" he felt Steve stop and knew he looked at the back of Tony's head, could feel it.

Then the man chuckled "and you called me a boy scout" tony buried his face in the couch cushion.

Steve looked at the backpack tony had dropped at the corner of the couch and reached out to open the front pocket, feeling around for the familure shape of a bottle and when he found it, wrapped his hand around it and pulled it out.

Looking at the bottle he couldn't help another chuckle, it was a fairly expensive brand and half used.

Steve popped it open with his thumb and pulled his other hand away from tony to pour some lube into it warming it before reaching out and circling one finger around Tony's hole teasing at the edge of it "you wouldn't so happen to have condoms in this bag would you?"

Tony shook his head on the cushion and groaned when Steve pressed his finger inside a little.

"no, I don't think I'd have any to fit you" he heard another chuckle as the finger pulled out and rubbed at his rim before slipping in again "besides I'm clean, last I checked" Steve hummed and pushed further in before pulling out again and teasing him with two fingers making tony whine.

"same" Steve said roughly as he just barely started to press the fingers in, tony ducked his head "then go without, just fuck me" a sudden burn in his ass made his head shoot up and his mouth fly open on a curse.

Steve stared at tony, at his fingers pressed deeply into his ass, Tony's words had surprised him, sent a strange bolt of longing through him, made his cock pulse under his towel.

He hadn't even realized he'd pushed his fingers all the way in until he heard tony curse.

Cursing to himself Steve waited a moment then slowly pulled his fingers out to make sure he hadn't hurt the younger man, as he did he watched Tony's legs tremble, heard him groan softly, watched him close his eyes and lower his head pushing himself up on his elbows.

As he pulled them out he felt around looking for injury and once his fingers were free he looked at the shiny digits for signs of blood, sighing with relief when he found none.

The last thing he wanted to do was hurt tony.

Steve watched tony for a moment, taking a breath to steady himself and massaging Tony's cheek with one hand before starting to tease at his hole again, this time being slow as he pressed two fingers inside and continued to stretch tony.

Tony let out a soft moan as Steve stretched him, the burn mostly fading as tony made himself relax.

When Steve started scissoring his fingers tony couldn't help complaining, "Jesus, I won't break"

He wanted more; his cock was aching for friction it couldn't get while trapped in the folds of his underwear.

"I'm not about to hurt you" Steve's voice was rough and he punctuated his words bu ramming his fingers into the delightful bundle of nerves that made Tony's hands clench against the couch cushions as he moaned "oh god, Steve please" tony wasn't above begging to get what he really wanted "you won't hurt me"

Steve stretched his two fingers wide then pulled them out, tony made a noise of complaint in the back of his throat.

When they pressed against him again, there were three of them, they pressed in slowly and tony bowed his back to push against them.

Steve held still for a moment and let him push back, crooking his fingers so they just barely nudged his prostate, spreading them so they pulled at Tony's rim as he pulled off.

After a minute tony was whining, chasing after a pleasure Steve kept just out of reach "Steve" he moaned as Steve purposely hit his sweet spot then put a hand on his cheek and pulled his fingers out slowly.

Then because he was apparently a bastard he rubbed them against Tony's rim just enough to tease but not enough to slip back in then he pulled away completely leaving tony cold and empty.

Tony made such a pretty picture with his ass in the air, hole open and shiny with lube, his hair messy and face red, Steve's hands itched for a pencil but he settled for the lube, he didn't bother to warm it as he stood up, the slight chill could only do him good.

All but ripping the stubborn towel from his waist he slicked himself, having to take a deep breath to calm himself down before taking a step closer and lining himself up with tony.

He put his hand on the youngers hip to steady him and started to slip inside.

Tony wasn't very tight because of the excessive fingering but he was still tight enough that he hissed at the stretch, Steve used the hand not holding his hip to sooth him, laying it on the small of Tony's and rolled his hips forward until he was fully seated.

Steve couldn't get over how good it felt, how tight tony was, he wanted to stay there, he wanted...

He shook his head, it didn't matter what he wanted.

Bending at the waist, he pressed a kiss between the youngers shoulder blades, tightened his grip on Tony's hip and started to slowly pull out, barely an inch before pushing back in.

Tony moaned as each roll of Steve's hips pulled him out a bit more, his body was warm against tony, facial hair tickling his skin, his grip was tight, keeping tony from moving to much as Steve filled him up in all the right ways.

His dick stretching him almost to his limits, it would be perfect if tony could get his cock free of his briefs because the confinement was starting to get annoying "Steve" he whined and felt the larger man's lips twitch against his skin.

Instead of freeing him Steve pushed in a little harder, making tony gasp as the head of Steve cock just barely nudged that spot inside himself.

The bastard was keeping him like that on purpose.

Tony was whining, letting out little whimpers every time Steve pressed back inside and he knew why, his briefs were still around his legs, the elastic keeping his cock trapped.

He knew he should probably help him out but the sounds he was making were so pretty and needy, Steve wondered if he would come untouched if he just kept fucking him like this.

The thought made him twitch inside of the young man who moaned in turn "Steve, please" he whined again and Steve sighed even as his lips twitched and he leaned forward a little further "please, what?" he growled against the youngers ear snapping his hips forward, making tony squeak.

"please, I need more" he keened and Steve couldn't say no, so he straightened up and ground his hips forward again before pulling out completely.

When he pulled out tony felt empty, his hole twitching and his body chilled but he didn't have time to linger on it as Steve's hand grabbed his shoulder and stood him up.

The hand that had been on Tony's hip moved grabbing his briefs and pulled them down further until they were loose enough to fall with his pants around his ankles, he lifted one foot and kicked the insulting objects of clothing away, breathing a sigh of relief now that his dick was free.

The relief didn't last long though because Steve turned him and lifted until his feet left the ground, he didn't have time to wrap his legs around him though, because Steve turned around and fell backwards.

They hit the couch with a slight bounce and tony blinked in confusion for a moment putting his hands on Steve's chest to push himself up which caused his ass to press against Steve's still hard dick.

He looked at the man laying beneath him who rose one brow in question before squeezing Tony's thighs "oh" Tony's brain clicked finally catching up and he couldn't help smiling.

Moving his hands to Steve's chest for balance, tony readjusted his knees on the couch and lifted himself up reaching back with one hand to guild Steve to his entrance then started to lower himself.

The first stretch made him gasp softly but he didn't stop until, breathing heavily, he was fully seated.

Looking down tony took in the man below him, Steve's chest moved slowly under Tony's hands, his skin was flushed and his hair, still damp from his shower, stood up at odd angles.

He couldn't help leaning down, gliding one hand up his chest and neck to bury his fingers in the golden strands.

Tony felt one of Steve's hands move from his hips to the back of his neck, his large palm resting there for a moment before pulling him into a kiss, the slick slide of lips and tongues made him remember and give an experimental rock of his hips.

Steve groaned in his chest when tony moved and lowered his hands back to Tony's hips, encouraging him to continue.

Steve was pretty sure he'd go insane if he didn't. He guided the younger in rocking his hips, lifting himself a little more each time as he gained confidence.

After a minute tony had gotten the hang of it and started angling his hips, clutching at steve while raising his hips, grinding each time their hips met.

The sound of flesh slapping together and their heavy breathing was loud in the apartment, Tony's hands were grasping at Steve's chest.

The youngers eyes were closed and his mouth had fallen open and Steve, in a distant locked away art of his brain, though he couldn't be any more gorgeous.

His tanned skin seemed to glow in the lamp light.

Suddenly Steve realized he was letting the younger do all the work and he was gasping and sweating with more than just arousal.

Steve had to admit it was exhausting riding someone for the first time so he moved his hands, grabbing Tony's hip tighter with one hand he mover the other to Tony's waist just below his ribs then Steve moved his legs, bracing himself before he started rocking up and into the younger, pleasure singing sweetly in his veins.

"Oh fuck," tony cried unable to hold it back as Steve found his prostate and assaulted it mercilessly.

His muscles burned from the workout he'd been giving them, his face was soaked with sweat and he was sure he looked horrible but he couldn't find it in him to care, he felt too good.

Steve jacked up into him again, harder this time, and Tony's body flushed, throat vibrating with a moan.

He wasn't going to last long like this, it was too hot.

It felt too good.

Bending at the waist tony pressed his palms into the couch on each side of Steve's head, working his hips with renewed effort.

The blonde man's eyes were half lidded, color rising in his face and his lips were slack, his breath fanning out against Tony's face.

He was watching tony with something nameless burning in his eyes.

Tony was sure if he thought about it he could figure out which emotion it was but trying to think made his head hurt, the pleasure making it impossible to concentrate.

He laid his lips against Steve's, their breathing growing loud and harsh in the still air.

Steve raised his hand and laid it heavily against the back of Tony's neck, his tongue sliding into Tony's mouth and tangling with his own.

A sharp thrust made Tony's body shudder and he pulled his lips away exposing his throat as he tossed his head back "fuck Steve"

He keened in the back of his throat and felt Steve's lips graze over his adams apple, his hips jerking faster, Steve was just holding his still now and it was a good thing, tony wasn't sure his legs could hold him up, the trembled too much.

Steve started to suck a bruise into his shoulder as Tony's back started to bow, his ok hung heavy and aching from not being touched "oh shit oh fuck" he repeated and clutched his hands, accidentally scratching Steve's chest as the man moved hand off Tony's neck and down to his cock.

It barely took three strokes before he was coming with a wordless cry, sitting straight up.

His vision went fuzzy before he closed his eyes.

Then a strange feeling pushed him further into oblivion, he felt Steve pulse inside him, a warm dampness filling him as Steve grunted groaning long and low below him.

It felt so weird but so good and tony felt weak, orgasm leaving his body loose he fell forward onto Steve's chest, making the man grunt at the impact but otherwise not complain.

Tony was glad he wasn't sure he could move.

The younger man collapsed on Steve's chest forcing part of the air out of his lungs.

Tony wasn't heavy but Steve was already short on breath at the moment.

Looking down Steve saw Tony's eyes were closed, his head resting on Steve's shoulder face loose with post-coital bliss mouth slack as he breathed shallowly and the muscles of his back twitching.

It made Steve's lips twitch up at the corner and- "if you droll on me I'm going to kick your ass" he suddenly said making tony let out a surprised laugh "I doubt a little spit is going to kill you given what I'm lying in"

Steve refused to admit to himself that he chuckled at the sarcastic little shit.

Instead, he put his hand on the small of Tony's back and rolled to the side, pulling out as he did, Steve both felt and saw tony wince as he did and felt a twinge of sympathy although the younger man didn't open his eyes so it couldn't be that bad.

Sitting up Steve reached for his towel laying on the floor and turned back to clean the mess on Tony's stomach, giving his own skin a quick scrub before throwing the towel back to the floor he grabbed the blanket on the edge of the couch and turned back to tony.

Not moments after he settled back down did the younger man reclaim his spot on his chest and latch on.

The damn octopus.

Sighing heavily Steve tucked the blanket around them and got comfortable, closing his eyes and wrapping his arm around Tony's waist so he didn't move around too much or somehow fall off the couch.

Last thing Steve needed was for tony to fall and complain about it.

Smirking a little at the mental image Steve let himself fall into dreamless sleep.


	24. Chapter 24

Steve woke up early and extracted himself from the couch, not looking at the young man still sleeping there, instead he went to his room got some clothes and walked into his bathroom, he wondered if he should shower, he probably smelled like sex but then again he didn't really care.

What he did care about though was the damn beard on his face, he had to get the thing off.

As he worked he tried to keep his mind from wandering to the young man still laying asleep on his couch but he couldn't help it, he didn't know how he went from having to get away from the younger to sleeping with him again, actually he did know he just didn't want to admit it.

Tony made him weak and stupid, made him ignore his better judgement.

If he didn't get away he was going to get caught or worse tony would get...

Steve froze, his razor pressed against his cheek, since when was hurting tony, a young man he occasionally fucked, worse than getting arrested? The young geniuses wasn't worth his freedom, and what did he really know about tony other than what he felt like, what he looked like when he came, what his sweat tasted like and how he smelled like coffee and metal and-

"god damn it!" Steve hissed as pain burned his face.

He yanked away he razor looked at the blood on it and his fingers, watched as blood dripped down his face, off his chin and onto his sink and then he sighed and closed his eyes "fuck" he breathed because suddenly he knew.

Steve knew nothing about the young man but tony was so important to him now, Steve was to deep, he couldn't.

Looking up at himself in the mirror, looking at his half shaved face and the blood smearing in the soap on his face, he looked at the bruising on his throat and he knew what he had to do "this is going to fucking hurt" he said to his reflection and closed his eyes again.

He should have gotten away while he could.

Tony dreamed of falling and woke up by landing on the floor off of the couch with a thud.

He cursed, legs tangled in the blanket he struggled for a moment before he opened his eyes and looked around, it took him a minute for his brain, sluggish with sleep, to realize where he was and why he was catching a chill where he really didn't want one.

Naked.

Couch.

Sore.

Steve's apartment.

With a huff tony untangled his legs and pushed himself up to look around, it was early, pale light filtered into the apartment, if he had to say tony would guess it couldn't be later than 8, maybe 9 in the morning, which was good because he had a class at noon that didn't mean he could lay around in Steve's apartment though, especially not on the floor.

As he stood up holding the blanket around himself he wondered if Steve would mind if he used his shower.

Most likely not.

Looking round for his clothes he wondered where the man had gotten off to before figuring it was probably something illegal he didn't really want to know.

Plausible deniability and all that jazz.

Shaking his head, he walked slowly toured the bathroom in Steve's room, picking up a bundle of clothes he was pretty sure were his.

Toy let his mind wander to unimportant things as he turned on the shower and stepped under the spray.

He thought of equations and the fact that dum-e needed debugged again as he hummed an absent tune.

He was half way dressed before he realized he was wearing Steve's shirt.

He looked at the star on the chest and frowned, how he had picked up Steve's shirt by mistake when it was the opposite color of the one he had been wearing he had no idea but, he really didn't want to take it off.

It was like a nagging itch in the back of his mind telling him not to take it off, he had no idea why, but it was the same itch he got when his father came home from a bad meeting, or a lost contract so he just finished buttoning his pants and left the bathroom to find his shoes.

Somehow one of his sneakers ended up under the couch and the other one was half way across the room, he started to wonder just how the fuck that happened but thinking about it brought up memories that made his face feel warm and his lips lift into a stupid grin.

Unable to hold his snicker, and yes it was a snicker and not a giggle, he walked to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee, putting his shoes on while he waited for it to finish.

His phone buzzing made him return to the couch to pick it up and look at it, pepper was calling him.

Tony swallowed thickly, when she called him it was rarely good.

"hey pepper darling! Love of my life! What do you need"

"relax tony I'm not calling to yell at you"

"oh ok, then what's up?" he asked more than a little relieved as he poured himself some coffee and sat at the counter to drink it, he never liked upsetting pepper, she was his oldest friend.

"I just wanted to know if you were going to show up for class, miss hills exam is today" he couldn't help groaning "Damn it, I thought that was next week" he said while putting his cup in the sink and moving to grab his backpack "it was, she just moved it forward like the rest of the professors"

Tony huffed as he declined the stairs "why the hell are they doing that anyway? Is fury trying to torture us?"

He knew the woman rolled her eyes "hell if I know but you'll be fine if you've been studying" there was silence for a moment then "you have been studying right?"

He scoffed as he left the building "why the hell would I need to- "

Suddenly there was a wave of heat and a flash behind him, something throwing him to the ground, hard, as a loud bang echoed above him, and his vision blacked out.

On his phone laying a few feet away pepper was screaming his name.

The bag on his shoulder felt heavy as he walked into Jan's shop, the counter was unmanned, and it was too early for customers, so he locked the door and pulled down the blind before walking to the back room, it was starting to fill up again with desks and dressers.

In a few days he was sure it would be almost impossible for him to move through it again.

Opening the door to the back office he saw everyone sitting at the table, even Natasha who he thought had morning classes and Jan, sitting at the end and filing her claws.

He tossed his bag on the floor beside his chair and sat down slowly, everyone's eyes tuned to him, curious about what he had to say, "Barton" he finally spoke making the man look up at him "tell me you figured out who the fuck it is we robbed last night?"

The man shifted uncomfortably in his chair "no, I looked everywhere I could think of I even called in some favors, the place was clean, the people were clean"

Steve sighed, he was starting to get a migraine he could already feel it, turning his head he looked at Sam and Bucky "those papers tell us anything?" he asked

When they shared a look, he could tell he wasn't going to like what they were about to say "most of the stuff in the safe was receipts, transaction history's and tax documents but, some of them were receipts for some heavy shit" Sam started then paused.

"This guy had a shit ton of stark tech weapons" Bucky said, and Steve finally noticed how dark his best friend's eyes were, Steve couldn't stop himself from glancing at the empty sleeve of Bucky's shirt.

It was stark techs fault that he lost his arm "who was the seller? I don't think stark would be willing to put his ass on the line by doing black-market deals" Natasha said "how do you know Nat? the guys a raging alcoholic and from what I hear his kids not that much better" Barton said.

The red head looked at him and he ducked in his seat "I have my sources Clint, don't believe everything you read online" that was Natasha's scary voice, Steve hated her scary voice.

"so, the papers, who was the seller?" Steve steered them back to the topic at hand "Kilian bought his stuff from a guy named Stan" Sam started reaching down to pull out the weapons contracts "I have no idea who that is but I'm sure Clint can find out in a minute or so"

The blonde nodded and pulled out a laptop with an arrow decal on it and started typing "so you guys think Kilian is black market?" Steve asked, "it's either him or whoever he's working for" Jan finally spoke up "what makes you think he's working for someone?" Steve questioned.

"oh, honey Kilian isn't smart enough to get that much firepower on his own, besides I looked at the transaction history's, his accounts and inventory, it doesn't match up. Somehow Mr. Kilian was getting a few thousand dollars deposited into his account every week that wasn't accounted for in his taxes or his inventory"

Steve was about to say something when Barton sat back and turned his computer "Stan is Obadiah Stan, long time business partner and friend of Mr. stark himself" Steve looked at the image of the bald man from a recent article, just looking at him gave Steve the creeps.

"well then, I guess both are dirty, there's no wan Stan could move that much shit" Bucky motioned to the papers Sam had pulled out "and stark not catch wind of it but who was Kilian the front for?"

"we don't know yet but until we find out? We all need to lay low for a while, we scored enough to keep us good at least for a few weeks" everyone was nodding as Steve spoke, but Jan was staring at her phone.

And not normal staring, she looked scared "Jan?" Steve questioned making the woman look up "turn on the news" she said in a strained voice.

Sam was the closest to the remote and grabbed it to turn on the TV hanging on the wall behind Steve.

He turned and immediately his eyes widened, that was his apartment building, the headline said something about an explosion "unmute it" he demanded.

"- believed that a gas leak, was the cause of the explosion that rocked this apartment's tenants merely an hour ago, the forth floor has been labeled a complete loss." The reporter was a blonde woman in a red suit jacket and red lips, behind her smoke rose from the fourth floor of Steve's apartment building.

"joining me now is one of the first responders on the scene, Jason duke from the local fire station, Mr. duke" she turned to a soot stained man in a shirt with the local fire stations logo on it "what can you tell us about what happened? How many people have been injured by the explosion were there any fatalities?"

He rose a hand to make the woman stop "there have been a few scrapes and three people are going to the hospital for second degree burns from the initial explosion, but it looks like most of the blast was focused on the corner of the building"

"apartment D3, tell me was the resident Johnathan blaze home at the time of the explosion? Do you suspect foul play?" the fire chief stepped back "no comment, now if you'll excuse me I need to make sure the fires under control" he walked away, and the camera focused back on the woman as Sam muted the tv.

Bucky was staring at Steve whose face had gone pale "Steve" he prompted his best friend who slowly turned around "that was my apartment" he said quietly making everyone stair at him, but he hardly noticed it.

He was distracted by the fact that someone had just blown up his apartment, they might say it was a gas leak, but he knew foul play when he saw it, but who would want to come after him? No one knew where he lived.

God if he hadn't gotten up when he did, if he had slept just an hour later he would have still been there.

Chances were somehow tony would have convinced him to stay in bed and-

Oh fuck, tony!

He was still there when he left, still asleep, what if he hadn't left for his classes yet.

Steve put his head into his hands fingers going into his hair, what if he was still there when it exploded, what if someone had broken in to set it up.

He could feel his throat tightening, and his palms were sweating hundreds of questions battling in his skull.

But the loudest one?

'What if he didn't get out?'


	25. Chapter 25

His head hurt, his ears were ringing and it sounded like someone was screaming.

Opening his eyes tony stared up at a grey sky, no wait that wasn't the sky, it was smoke, something was on fire.

Coughing at a sudden acidic feeling in his throat tony pushed himself up to stair at the building in front of him, smoke billowed from top floor, from where he was it looked like part of the top floor was missing, a wall and- oh fuck, that was Steve's apartment, how the hell.

He looked around suddenly, people were starting to gather, others were streaming from the building itself, he needed to get out of there.

Tony shoved to his feet grabbing his phone from where it had fallen on the ground and he started running not even thinking about where he was going.

He saw a fire truck sail down the road lights and sirens wailing matched only by the ambulance that was a few yards behind it, a cop flew passed him as well before he reached someplace safe, his workshop.

Throwing the door open he stumbeled inside then slammed it back closed, leaning against it and gasping for breath, he was shaking and his legs could barely hold him up,

A part of himself told him he was in shock but there was nothing he could do about it, he could only side down the door until he sat on the floor and drop his head into his hands "ok just breathe, its ok, its ok, just breath"

Distressed beeping and whirring made him look up, DUM-E had rolled over to from his corner of the shop to investigate him, it clicked its claw and beeped again in concern when it noticed tony looking at it, which made him reach out and pet its claw

"It's ok" he tried to sooth and let the bot lift him to his feet.

When DUM-E started nudging his hip he realized the ringing wasn't in his ears, it was his phone going off so he dug it out of his pocket and answered it "tony! Are you ok! What was that noise? Did something explode?! Why'd you take so long to pick up!" it was pepper

"Whoa, whoa, slow down pep, my head is pounding" he could almost see the woman taking a deep breath "what happened tony?"

He could tell from her tone that if he didn't give her a legit answer, she was going to freak out and having witnessed it only once before he did not want to be subjected to it again, "I was leaving someone's apartment and it exploded"

There was a beat of silence in which he was amazed he had rendered the woman speechless and then "exploded?! What the fuck tony, whose apartment? This early, was it a one night stand and do I know her?"

He shook his head, slightly amused as he walked up the stairs leading to the small apartment above the storage area of his workshop "you don't know him" the line once again went silent as pepper tried to wrap her head around the implications of that.

"Was he still there?" she finally asked voice concerned and he sighed, adding another reason to the list of why he loved pepper

"No, no he was already gone to work and no it wasn't a one night stand it, I don't know what it is to be honest but that doesn't matter his apartment blew up, if I didn't get up for class-"

"you stayed the night" she cut him off which he was both thankful and annoyed at, he grunted as he fell onto his couch "pepper" he complained "sorry it's just that's not your MO, there's a report on the news" tony wasn't surprised she was googling it "they say it was a gas leak, just bad luck"

He was already shaking his head "there are so many reasons why that's wrong I don't have enough time to name them all, but the main one is I was in the apartment not five minutes before, there was no gas, and when you count the size and force of the explosion? It was enough to throw me to the ground four stories below the floor, gas explosions aren't that powerful and if they are it would have destroyed the entire floor"

"So you're saying what, someone targeted him? Or you?" tony shook his head again "I don't know pepper it's a theory, listen tell Hill I won't make it to the exam, tell her I'm puking out my ass or something, she'll enjoy that" he heard pepper chuckle sounding far less strained.

"I'll think up some kind of excuse, I always do, will that be all Mr. stark?" she questioned making him smile "that will be all Mrs. Potts"

She chuckled again then paused "be careful tony" she finally said and he smiled a little more "I will pep" he said then hung up and tossed the phone away before pressing his hands to his face with a groan.

The day was so fucked and it wasn't even noon yet.

Maybe he should just go to bed.

Steve was pretty sure he was well on his way to a panic attack, his apartment had just exploded, he didn't know if tony was still in it when it did and it sure as fuck wasn't a gas leak.

Fuck who would blow up his apartment? Moreover, why? It couldn't have been killian not enough time had passed since they broke in.

The shrill sound of a phone ringing made him focus and pull out his cell with numb fingers and stare at it in confusion, a blocked number was trying to call him.

For a moment he considered not answering it but then he realized it might be the guy that blew up his apartment and answered it on speaker "it wasn't a gas leak" a modulated but still plainly male voice spoke as the line connected., Steve looked up at his friends sitting around the table, all with wide eyes.

"Who the fuck is this?" Bucky was the first to recover "I'm the one that saved your collective asses last night" Steve and Sam looked at each other "what do you want?" Steve asked, "To save your collective asses, like I said it wasn't a gas leak that destroyed your apartment, it was a shape charge designed to blow out, that's why the rest of the building is still standing and why no one died"

"You sure about that?" Sam asked leaning forward on the table, a sound came over the phones shitty speaker that at first wasn't recognizable "you doubt me? I am positive, no one died," he sounded amused so it had to be a laugh.

All Steve knew was he felt a sudden wave of relief that made him feel five pounds lighter.

Tony was safe, thank god.

"Well forgive us for being suspicious, we have no idea who you are or why you're doing this, let alone what you want for it" Steve spoke mind clearing so he could focus.

"I don't want anything, I'm doing a favor for a friend, you got on someone's very bad side and soon enough they are going to figure out that your still alive and they will try again, although this time I doubt they'll be concerned about casualties"

Glancing up confirmed Steve's suspicions that no one doubted that, hell Natasha looked like she expected it "yeah well thanks for the advice-"

The man on the phone cut off Clint "that's wasn't advice that was a statement of fact, my advice is that all of you disappear, get new phones, tell someone where you're going and go the opposite direction"

There was a pause for a moment then he spoke again "and for the love of god don't buy burner phones all at once at the same store" then the line went dead along with Steve's entire phone, he picked it back up and tried to turn it back on but it wouldn't work "what the fuck"

"The guy is good," Clint said after a few minutes of fucking with the device, which he then tossed onto the table "he remotely killed your phone, completely turned it off"

"Can we trust this guy boss?" Sam stated the question on everyone's mind, Steve couldn't blame him, their asses were on the line more than anyone else's "if he wanted to turn us in he would have done it by now" Natasha finally spoke.

"Yeah but, what does he want?" Jan asked, "I know he said he was doing a favor for his friend but, who? And what does that friend want from us?"

Steve shook his head "I don't know, what I do know is he was right about us needing to disappear" he looked around the table and watched everyone nod before continuing "but that doesn't mean we stop looking around, find out who we robbed we'll find out who blew up my apartment".

They all nodded again and he reached down grabbing his bag and rose from his seat "while you're at it find out who the fuck this iron man guy is" Clint fake saluted "on it boss"

He looked at them all nodded once and then turned toured the door.

It was time to disappear.

Tony killed Steve's phone then sat back and looked at DUM-E who wasn't straying far from his creators side "10-to-1 odds they won't listen to me but at least I warned them" the machine clicked his claw and nodded making tony laugh and pat his strut before sighing.

"We've got a lot of work to do boy" he said before lacing his fingers together and popping his knuckles "first things first, who blew up that apartment" he placed his hands back on the keyboard and started typing.

The remains were still smoldering when a man stepped into the apartment, almost everything was destroyed, if not by the explosion and resulting fire then by the water damage from when they tried to get it under control, some of the kitchen survived so the man walked over and looked around, finding nothing of interest he moved on.

He stepped into the remains of the living room, there was a pile of ash against a wall and when he kicked it, gray ash marring his glossy black shoe, he found a piece of paper, mostly undamaged with dark lines on it in the shape of a young man's face.

It made the man smirk and fold it to place it in his jacket before getting up to leave, almost catching his foot in a bundle of cloth that survived the blaze he bent down once again to look at it.

On it was a barely distinguishable school logo, it was out of place and the man knew it so he picked it up and left the smoldering building, answering his phone as he went.

"He wasn't there, but I think I know where to start looking for him" the man smirked at the shirt in his hand.

A man's voice spoke over the line "good, when you find him bring me his head"

"Yes sir"

notes.

hello lovelies, we have come to the end of this part of the trying times series! but don't worry I already have the first chapter of the next one finished and I will be adding the link to part 2 once I get it posted.

I just wanted to let all of you know that I am very grateful to everyone that has stayed with me so far, I don't believe I would have gotten this far if it wasn't for you guys!

if you liked this last chapter please leave a kudo.

and i'll see you next time!

RD


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